


Locked Out

by EleenaDume



Category: The Owl House (Cartoon)
Genre: Also Amity bravely fights a toothbrush at one point, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Boscha gets taken down a couple pegs, Bullying, Camila is a good mom, Confident Willow Park, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Cross-Posted on Wattpad, Depression, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Found Family, Gen, General theme of working through personal issues and healing from trauma, Heavier topics in later chapters which include, Hugs, Hurt/Comfort, Living Together, Meeting the Parents, Mistakes are made but it’s okay because otherwise we wouldn’t have a plot, Semi-accidental adoption, Slow Burn, The Blight kids need a hug (or several), The majority of the fic is established relationship tho, Trauma related to child abuse, WHY IS THERE SO MUCH CRYING IN THIS FIC WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME, also there’s an entire grudgby-side plot now because I have no self-control, lesson one of the human realm: don’t get hit by a car please thank you, mutual love and support, so many hugs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-10
Updated: 2021-02-13
Packaged: 2021-03-05 19:08:22
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 104,852
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25830331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EleenaDume/pseuds/EleenaDume
Summary: “Belos gave me a choice. He told me to get rid of Luz, one way or another. And I did. Now everyone’s back in the realm they belong in, nobody got hurt and Luz is forever out of danger. It’s best for everyone involved that way.”“Keep telling yourself that, Lily.” Eda glared daggers at her sister. “Oh, and solid job on locking your own protégée out of the Boiling Isles, by the way.”“What are you talking about?”“Amity went through the door after Luz,” Emira chimed in. Her voice was scarily monotone. “Now she’s trapped on the other side of the portal you just destroyed.”—Summer has come to an end, and it's time for Luz to return home to Camila. Amity only finds the courage to tell her friend how she feels about her when the door closes behind Luz, and makes the rash decision to follow her.Then something goes wrong, stranding Amity with Luz, far away from everything she’s ever known.Meanwhile, life soldiers on in the Boiling Isles, but unbeknownst to Amity, her disappearance will radically alter the lives of those close to her. Eda, Edric, Emira, Willow and Gus resolve to do everything in their power to bring her back, but not without facing challenges of their own.
Relationships: Alador Blight & Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight & Odalia Blight, Amity Blight & Camila Noceda, Amity Blight & Edric Blight & Emira Blight, Amity Blight & Lilith Clawthorne, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda, Amity Blight & Luz Noceda & Willow Park & Gus Porter, Amity Blight/Luz Noceda, Boscha & Skara (The Owl House), Boscha & Willow Park, Camila Noceda & Luz Noceda, Eda Clawthorne & Lilith Clawthorne, Minor or Background Relationship(s), Willow Park & Gus Porter
Comments: 1254
Kudos: 5270





	1. A Heartfelt Goodbye And A Rash Decision

**Author's Note:**

> Relevant links:
> 
> [This story on Wattpad](https://www.wattpad.com/story/251069961-locked-out)
> 
> [Locked Out side stories](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149602)
> 
> [My Owl House-Tumblr](https://the-lone-witch-and-secret-room.tumblr.com/)
> 
> [Owl House-Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/EleenaDume/)
> 
> [Spotify-playlist for the story](https://link.tospotify.com/OnYvKk7Kyab) (Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments of the fic if you know a song that you think might fit!)
> 
> I’m also running [an owl house book club on tumblr](https://toh-book-club.tumblr.com/) where I post fanfic recommendations every now and again, if you’re looking for fics to read, you can go check it out!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first chapter has some spoilers for Enchanting Grom Fright, so I‘d recommend watching the episode before you start reading!

Luz was straight up shaking. She wasn’t ready for this. She wasn’t ready to leave. 

Time had flown by since her arrival on the Boiling Isles, and just like that, the three months she was supposedly ‘at summer camp’ were over, and her mom was expecting her back at home. In just two days, she was supposed to go back to regular human school rather than Hexside, and she already got bored just thinking about that. Not only that, but there was also the fact that she had basically no friends at home, and there was quite a few people she didn’t look forward to seeing again after summer break that she hadn’t missed in the slightest.

Luz didn’t fit in at home. She’d never been quite as happy there as she was here.

She’d miss everyone she’d met here so much. 

She’d miss her comedy hours with King, hanging out with Willow and Gus, getting into all kinds of semi-legal but awesome messes with Eda, joking around with the twins, and... Amity. 

Oh god, how much she’d miss Amity.

The two of them had not started out on the best terms, but slowly, Amity had softened up to her, and hidden behind that mean, cold demeanor was easily the most amazing person Luz had ever met.

They’d all had so much fun together over the summer, and Luz was overjoyed with seeing Amity and Willow becoming friends again after everything that had happened between them. 

But now it was time to say goodbye...

“I don’t wanna leave you guys... I’ll miss you all so much...”

She was full-on ugly crying again, and she didn’t care in the slightest. This was hard. These guys were her best friends— her family. And now she had to leave them. Even though it was only temporary, she deserved to be upset.

“Awww, we’ll miss you too, Luz.” Willow pulled her best friend into another tight hug. She was visibly on the verge of tears as well. “Promise you’ll come visit often?”

“Of course. I promise.” 

Luz had no doubt she’d have no trouble at all keeping that promise. If she could have, she would have stayed on the Boiling Isles entirely. Obviously she’d come visit this wonderful magical fantasy world with all of its terrifying monsters as often as she could.

“Good. I’ll hold you to that. This is so you, you know, don’t forget me.”

Willow handed Luz a little pot, then held her hand over it to make a small flower grow out of it.

“I could never forget you, Willow. And is that...?”

Willow nodded and smiled at her.

“The same kind I was healing when we first met.“

Luz beamed.

“Awesome! I promise I’ll treasure it forever! And also try to not forget to water it!”

Luz did not have the best history with that, admittedly. But she’d try. 

...it was the thought that counted, right?

“I made some more magic letters to tell you goodbye!” Gus smiled at her when she turned her attention to him.

“If it’s another ‘GOODBYE FOREVER’ I swear, I’ll-“ Willow growled, but her friend lifted his hands in defense before she could finish her sentence, interrupting her.

“Of course not! I promised I’d get rid of them, remember?”

The blue letters over their heads spelled ‘SEE YOU NEXT SUMMER!’, and then he pulled out another sentence saying ‘HOPEFULLY SOONER‘.

Willow nodded in approval.

“Don’t you dare forget about us when you get back to your cool human school, you hear me?”

Luz chuckled a bit as she hugged Augustus.

“Gus, I’ve told you before, there’s nothing particularly ‘cool’ about human school. And there’s no way I’ll ever forget any of you or this place! I love you all so much.”

“AND WE LOVE YOU, LUZ! HOOT HOOT!”

Luz smiled and gave Hooty a hug.

Then she turned to King.

The little king of demons jumped into her arms and sobbed silently.

“Awww, I’ll miss you, too, little guy.”

“The King of Demons misses nobody!” He protested, cuddling up to her. Then, he sighed. “...but maybe I will miss you.” He continued on, so quietly that nobody but her could hear it.

She beamed and patted his head.

“Don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me.” He hugged her once more. “And we’ll always be connected through our friendship necklaces, remember?”

“Yeah! Of course! So don’t miss me too much, okay?”

Luz chuckled.

She took a couple more seconds to hug him, then turned to her mentor. 

This was so hard. So incredibly, incredibly hard. She was leaving behind so much here. She didn’t want to leave, not even temporarily... because leaving the Boiling Isles meant leaving behind a part of her. A huge part of her.

But she had to go. She missed her mom, and she didn’t want her to be worried. But that she had to didn’t make saying goodbye any easier...

Luz had thought that saying her farewells to her classmates the day before had been hard—but this was so,  so much worse.

With every person she said goodbye to, she felt like she was leaving behind another huge part of her. She felt her emotions being torn in too many directions at once, and it hurt, and she also felt like the last words she said to everyone before leaving needed to be perfect, despite knowing that they couldn’t and wouldn’t be.

“Eda...”

Luz didn’t even know where to start. There were so many things she wanted to say, so many things she wanted to thank her mentor for, and the reality that she was leaving now made her so emotional that all of it got stuck in her throat. 

Thankfully, Eda  _did_ know where to start.

“So... you really made it through the summer without getting lost or eaten, huh? Color me impressed!” Eda grinned as she ruffled Luz’s hair. “Seriously though... you did good, kid. You’re one of the toughest witches I’ve ever met. I’ll miss ya. See you soon, okay?”

“Yeah.” Luz wiped some tears off her cheeks, then pulled her mentor into a hug. “And... thanks, Eda. For everything. You know, this might sound a bit silly, but... you’ve kind of become like a second mom to me. You know, the  _weird, criminal kind.”_

“So, the best kind, right?” Eda chuckled, but was visibly tearing up when she hugged Luz back. “Now come on, kid. Hurry up with the rest of your goodbyes before your human mom reports you missing. It’s time to finally make good on my promise to get you home.”

Luz nodded and sighed as more tears streamed down her face. Just Amity and the twins left.

The human girl wasn’t sure why, but something inside her told her she should save saying goodbye to Amity for last. The thought of leaving everyone here hurt, enough to make her unable to sleep... but when she thought about leaving Amity and not seeing her again for several months, she felt like all air had been sucked out of her lungs.

_ ‘Come on, Luz. This is the last time you’ll see her in a while. Don’t make an idiot of yourself for once, okay?’ _

She sighed sadly as she walked up to Amity and the twins. 

Edric and Emira were giving their sister extremely weird glances time and again, and Amity looked like she was about to implode.

“So... this is it, I guess? Edric, Emira... you guys are pretty cool. Thanks for, you know, helping me to train for Grom and stuff. I’ll miss you. See you guys next summer!“

“We’ll miss you, too, Luz,” Emira said, looking at her brother expectantly as if she was waiting for him to add something—which he immediately did.

“But not as much as Mittens will miss you,  _right baby sis? ”_

Amity went beet-red. 

She was pretty much convinced the only reason her siblings hadn’t just said goodbye to Luz at school the day before was because they were determined to embarrass Amity to death in front of her crush one more time before Luz left for the human realm.

...and maybe also to make sure Amity actually went through with the confession she had planned.

Oh, how she regretted asking Emira for advice and thinking for even a single second that this could end any other way than it had. Why had she done that again?

_ ‘Right. Because Emira is the only one of us that’s somewhat functional enough to actually ask someone out.’ _

Amity send death glares in both of her siblings’ directions and growled.

“Shut it, you two!”

“We didn’t say anything, Mittens, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Emira replied with a grin.

Amity groaned.

Luz looked up at the twins.

“Oh, and one more thing before I leave... please be nice to your sister, okay? I know you guys  can be pretty cool, but what you did at the library was taking things  way too far , and if you ever actually hurt Amity with something you do, I’m going to stop being friends with you.”

“Yeah, yeah, got it.”

“Hear that, Mittens? She’s super protective of you! That’s adorable,” Edric teased Amity, winking at his little sister.

Amity could feel her cheeks heat up even more.

“I said shut it.” She sighed. “Sorry about that. Anyway... Luz, I’m... really going to miss you.”

There was an instant change in the tone when Amity said Luz’s name, switching from her being annoyed at her siblings to an incredibly soft voice in a matter of seconds.

Luz pulled her into a bear hug.

“Me too. I’ll miss you so much, Lemon Drop. Especially our book club.”

Amity just melted into the hug and never wanted to let go of her friend again. Her cheeks turned a light shade of pink at the new nickname that Luz had just blurted out without thinking much about it.

Meanwhile, everyone around them was exchanging weird looks.

“Did- did Luz just call Mittens ‘Lemon Drop’?” Emira whispered to her twin brother.

Edric nodded.

“And Mittens didn’t even kill her.”

“Luz, listen, I-” Amity swallowed hard. “There’s something that I need to tell you before you go.”

_ Wow, Luz smelled really nice. _

_‘Focus, Amity!’_ She commanded herself, taking a deep breath.

Luz was looking at her curiously.

“What is it?”

“I-” Her words got stuck in her throat.  _What was she thinking? She couldn’t actually believe she’d be able to go through with this, could she? What if Luz didn’t like her back? What if she told her right now and messed up their entire relationship?_ “I can’t do it,” she mumbled to herself, just quietly enough that Luz didn’t hear her.

“What is it, Amity?” Luz repeated when her friend hadn’t replied to her question after a while.

Amity was obviously nervous and hesitant about something, but why? Was everything alright? The longer the green-haired witch stayed quiet, the more worried Luz got.

Amity bit her lip and pulled her friend closer.

“I just... Promise me you’ll be back soon, okay?“

Amity never wanted to let go again, because letting go meant Luz would actually leave, and then she’d be gone, and then... 

The green-haired witch felt tears streaming down her face.

“Of course. I promise.” Luz audibly gasped when she lifted her head to see her friend cry.  _“Amity...”_

“Sorry, it’s just...”

“You really  _are_ going soft on me, huh?” Amity didn’t know how to reply, so she just nodded. “Hey, it’s okay. Don’t apologize. I’ve been bawling my eyes out all day, after all.” Luz smiled at her, then lifted a finger to her friend’s cheek and gently wiped the tears off Amity’s face. “I’m going to be back as soon as I can. And I promise I’ll miss you all an unhealthy amount in the meantime.”

Luz’s smile felt forced. Her heart was aching, and a part of her wanted to stay right here in this spot and just breathe in Amity’s nice magic perfume forever... but she had no choice. 

She had to go.

When Luz finally let go of Amity, she did it slowly and reluctantly.

There was a heavy numbness in her heart when she opened the door, Willow‘s flower and the memories of this wonderful place safely packed in her back as she readied herself to return to her regular life with her mom. 

She took a deep breath and turned towards her friends one last time. They were all smiling and waving, and Luz waved back, not even bothering to hold back her tears as she looked at the most special people she’d ever met for what would be the last time in a long while.

“Goodbye, terrifying fantasy world. I’m really going to miss you!” 

She’d be back soon. That was her only consolation.

“And we’ll miss you, Luz!”

She smiled at her friends—her second family—once more, and then she closed her eyes and stepped through the door.

  
  


Emira put a comforting hand on her sister’s shoulder when Luz went through the door, back into her own world.

“Couldn’t tell her, huh? It’s okay, Mittens. There’ll be other opportunities.”

Amity didn’t even reply. She was too focused watching Luz leave... and when the door closed shut behind her, Amity suddenly awoke from her trance and abruptly started moving.

It had finally hit her that Luz would be really, actually gone now—out of reach for her, for all of them—and that it would possibly be a really long time before they’d see each other again.

What if she didn’t find any opportunities to come visit them before next summer? 

A lot could happen in a year. A lot could change...

_ What if Luz came back and didn’t like Azura anymore?  _

_ What if she came back and had fallen in love while she was away? _

_ What if Amity had missed her one chance to tell Luz how she felt about her? _

Maybe it was the overthinking that made her do it, or maybe she just wasn’t thinking at all—but Amity went and grabbed a hair clip from the pile of human items that Eda had lying around on the table from the last Human Treasures Day and ran after Luz.

Gus looked at her in confusion.

“Uh... what are you doing?”

“What does it look like? Luz forgot her hair clip. I’m going to go after her and give it back to her!” Amity replied with a grin as she reopened the door and disappeared through it.

Edric started after his sister in disbelief and whistled.

“Whoa. Bold move, Mittens.”

Emira nodded.

“But I get it. She’s a little shy. It’s probably easier for her to do without so many eyes watching her.”

Gus just looked around really confused.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m pretty sure that hair clip didn’t actually belong to Luz.”

Willow just smiled.

“Amity knows that.”

“...huh? But why did she go after her, then?” Willow couldn’t help but chuckle a bit at the big question mark on her friend’s face. “Am I missing something here? Can somebody explain to me why all of you are looking at each other so weirdly?”

_ “Oh Gus...” _

  
  


Luz was still staring at the door of the small wooden cabin that had brought her into the magical world,the one that she was now supposed to leave, so many months ago, trying to tear her eyes from it so she could head home. It was hard, because a large part of her felt like she wasn’t heading home but actually leaving home. She’d barely left the Boiling Isles and was already starting to feel homesick.

She already missed her friends. It took all her barely existent self-control to keep her from opening the door again and stepping back inside.

Suddenly, the door opened again—entirely without Luz touching anything—and a second later, Amity ran out, and barely managed to balance herself in time in order to not trip down the small flight of stairs in front of the house.

“Luz, you forgot-” The green-haired witch blushed when she regained her balance and realized that there had been no need for running  or yelling after her friend, since Luz was still standing only a couple of steps from where she herself was standing right now. She facepalmed. “Oh great, now I look like an idiot.”

She closed the door behind her. The last thing she wanted for what was about to follow was an audience made of curious friends and family staring at them from the other side of the door.

“As someone who’s an expert at looking like an idiot, believe me, you didn’t. Believe me, I’d absolutely have tripped down these stairs if I were you,” Luz chuckled. Amity smiled at her as she walked down the stairs towards Luz. “And I’m not complaining, but... what are you doing here?”

The green-haired witch shyly touched the back of her head.

“You... forgot this.”

She handed Luz the hair clip she’d grabbed from the table. This was the first time she actually looked at it properly. It was small, v-shaped and had a silly little pink flower glued on.

“Oh.” Luz put her bag down on the ground and looked at what her friend was handing her. “Amity, that’s really sweet, but... that’s not my hair clip.“

“Really?” Amity asked, trying her best to sound surprised, as if she hadn’t been almost certain that was the case anyway. “Oh well. Now that I’m here...”

Luz interrupted her and pulled her into a hug.

“But... it’s really sweet that you did that. Even if it’s not really my clip, that you came after me like that for something as small as this is... really cute.”

Luz felt her heart flutter the way it had for a bit now whenever she was around Amity. There was something about the green-haired witch that made Luz feel weirdly comfortable and happy whenever they were together, so much that even the smallest gestures suddenly became extremely meaningful and that she couldn’t help but smile just thinking about her.

Even though the clip didn’t actually belong to her, at that moment, Luz was very glad about the mix-up. 

Maybe one more hug would make the final goodbye a little easier. Maybe if she hugged her long enough, Amity’s magic perfume would stay on Luz’s own clothes as well, and she could pretend Amity was there with her when she closed her eyes. The thought was nice.

Amity would gladly have remained in this position for another two hours, but that wasn’t why she’d come here. 

The hair clip had just been her excuse in case she’d chicken out again, after all. But she wouldn’t. Not this time.

She was still freaking out about the reasons she’d stopped herself from confessing her feelings before... but seeing Luz close the door behind her had made Amity realize that she might regret it for the rest of her life if she didn’t act right now. 

As nice as Grom had been, she still wished she’d actually found the courage to ask Luz out. And if she still regretted something like that so deeply several weeks later—despite the fact that this specific story had had a happy ending anyway—how much would she regret not confessing if Luz actually ended up falling in love with someone else?

That wasn’t something Amity wanted to think about, now or ever.

She slowly moved out of the hug and locked gazes with Luz.

“Always. But... Luz, I need you to forget about the hair clip for a second, okay? There’s something I need to tell you, and I have to do it now, because who knows what will have changed between us by the time I see you again. It’s... really important.”

She was nauseatingly nervous, and a part of her wanted to either run away or at least quit looking at Luz and start staring at her own shoes instead.

“Hey, is... is everything okay?” Luz looked genuinely concerned. She had never seen Amity this nervous before, and the green-haired girl seemed so serious. “You don’t look so good. You’re not...” Luz but her lip. She was really, really worried, and the thought of voicing her concerns out loud made her even more worried, but if something was wrong with Amity, she needed to know right away. “You’re not dying, are you?”

The thought alone almost made her knees give out.

_ “...what?” _

The look of genuine confusion in Amity’s face lifted a huge weight off of Luz’s shoulders.

“Oh thank god. It’s just, you looked so pale, and-”

The green-haired witch chuckled.

“Nope. Definitely not dying. Except maybe of nervousness.” Luz being so worried about her because of something as little as her being slightly pale was adorable and made Amity’s heart leap out of her chest way more than it should have. And the dumb misunderstanding had taken away at least a little bit of her nervousness.

She took a deep breath.

_ ‘Come on, Amity Blight. You can do this. You can do this.’  _

She took Luz’s hand.

Alright. This was it. No chickening out this time. She was ready.

“Luz, listen, I think I-“

A deafening explosion from behind Amity cut her off, and then a wave of pain washed over her as the shock wave slammed her right into Luz.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to my first Owl House-Multichapter-fic!  
> This idea randomly came over me one night, and then I started writing it because I have an immense lack of self-control.
> 
> Shoutout to IcyGauntlet for coming up with the title for this story!
> 
> I’m not sure when the second chapter will be up since I have a lot on my plate right now, and I also have no idea how many chapters total it’s going to be, but I hope you enjoyed it so far!
> 
> Thank you for reading, feedback would be much appreciated!


	2. Witches In The Woods

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There’s a lot of panicking this chapter, both in a lovey-dovey sense and in a regular one xD  
> Today’s hot take: Amity is just as much of a disaster as Luz, she just seems slightly more functional because she grew up on the Boiling Isles while Luz didn’t.  
> I know I said I’d update Monday, it’s not Monday but I also have zero self-control – as proven by the fact that this chapter isn’t only earlier than planned but also almost 1.5k words longer than the last –, bear with me here xD

“-mity? Amity, are you okay? Can you hear me?”

The green-haired witch wasn’t sure how much time had passed when Luz’s soft, worried voice reached her through the loud, painful ringing in her ears. 

Everything was still black around her, her eyelids felt too heavy to open them as the voice reached her through the darkness that surrounded her.

What exactly had just happened?

“I-” Amity groaned a bit and tried not to move too much. Her head was throbbing and her back hurt a bit—or maybe a lot—but she was also lying on top of something incredibly warm and comfortable that felt really nice. If the pain hadn’t already made her not want to move, the fact that the ground beneath her felt so good would have been enough of a reason to just stay there all day. “I’m fine, just a bit dizzy,” she mumbled. She still couldn’t bring herself to open her eyes, but she also really didn’t want Luz to worry about her. It was probably nothing anyway. “I landed on something surprisingly soft.”

“Oh, did you now?”

The smug tone of Luz’s voice and the fact that Amity finally realized how close the voice sounded to her made her come to a pretty embarrassing conclusion about what she was currently lying on, which immediately proved true when she finally managed to force her eyes open and the world around her became a bit less blurry. 

She was on top of Luz.

_ ‘...of course.’ _

Amity’s face turned scarlet, and for a moment, she silently hoped that whatever had just attacked them would kill her before she could die of her own embarrassment.

She was really doing extra well when it came to making herself look like a complete idiot in front of Luz today, wasn’t she?

“Oh stars, I’m so sorry.” Realizing where she was lying had made her wide awake again in a matter of seconds. “I- I didn’t hurt you, did I?”

She tried to get up. Her face was so incredibly close to Luz’s that their noses almost touched and Amity felt her cheeks grow redderand redder by the second. She could have leaned in and kissed her right then and there... but she didn’t.

Now was  not the time, and this wasn’t exactly the ideal scenario for a romantic first kiss that she’d imagined, either.

Not that she’d imagined how she wanted their first kiss to go— _ more than a couple of times... _

Luz shook her head.

“No, don’t worry, I’m fine. But you  did scare me quite a bit with the whole ‘blacking out’-thing. You had me really worried for a second there. It looked like you took a pretty bad hit...”

The sweet look of concern in Luz’s face almost made Amity forget she was trying to get up for a moment.

_ Dang it, how was this girl so perfect? _

“I... Sorry about that.”

Amity grinned at her crush sheepishly when she finally managed to sit up properly and moved off of Luz. 

The green-haired witch then focused entirely too much on wiping a total of fours grass stalks off her clothes in order to not have to address what had just happened.

It took a moment for her to remember again why she’d fallen in the first place.

“Wait, what about the thing that just attacked us?” 

She’d been so busy panicking about lying on top of Luz that she’d forgotten about that again right away after she’d remembered it the first time.

She looked around panicky, but couldn’t make out any sign of immediate danger. That was good, at least. 

...but she was still really confused. 

“What exactly happened? I feel like I’m missing something here. How long was I out?”

Did she hit her head? That would explain the throbbing at least...

“Attacked isn’t the right word I think,” Luz replied, now also slowly sitting up. “I mean, it might have been an attack, but it was directed less at us and more at the door.”

She gestured towards the wooden cabin.

Amity blinked, unsure how exactly she’d missed this before when she realized what her friend meant... there was now a gaping hole where the green door had been previously been. There were black burn marks all around the hole in the wooden wall.

“Oh.”

“Yeah. This could have ended _a lot_ _worse_ if either of us had still been on top of the staircase.” Luz sighed. “I was going to warn you, but it happened so fast that I didn’t have the time to. I see some sort of fire, and boom! Next thing I know I’m lying in the grass and you’re blacked out on top of me and not responding. I was... _really scared_ for a second when you didn’t reply.” Luz swallowed audibly as her hand found Amity’s. “If anything had happened to you because of that stupid hair clip, I’d never forgive myself.”

For a moment, Amity just sat there, unmoving, because  _how exactly was she supposed to function properly while Luz was holding her hand?_

It wasn’t like they’d never held hands before, so how was she still panicking this much? Why was her heart beating so fast? 

_ ‘Pull yourself together, you’ll never be able to kiss her if you get this mushy over hand-holding.’ _

This was ridiculous. 

She took a deep breath, and finally, she was able to formulate a proper sentence.

“Luz, I... it’s okay, really. I’m fine.”

There was nothing wrong with a little white lie, was there? She didn’t want to make Luz upset, and while Amity had definitely felt better, she didn’t feel that bad—this was nothing a healing spell and some pain medicine couldn’t fix when she got...  back home. 

Amity froze in shock when she suddenly realized what what Luz had just said probably meant.

“The door’s gone.”

All color drained from Amity’s face. 

She stood up, her legs still a bit wobblier than she would have liked them to be, and half ran, half stumbled towards the cabin to take a look inside. 

When she entered through where the door had previously been, nothing happened. She wasn’t back home. She just stood inside a random rundown wooden cabin.

“Amity, what are you-” Luz stepped inside to see her friend sunken onto the floor, staring at some small green splinters in her hands that were now the only thing that remained of what had once been a magical portal. Luz kneeled down next to Amity and looked at her in slight confusion... and then it also dawned on Luz that they were in the actual cabin rather than back on the Boiling Isles. “...uh oh.”

For a moment, the two of them just sat there in silence, taking in the weight of what had just happened and what it probably meant for them. 

The door was gone. That meant their pathway to the Boiling Isles was gone. They couldn’t go back.

Ever the optimist, Luz was desperately trying to find an explanation that would calm her and Amity down. Freaking out right now wouldn’t help, especially since they didn’t even know what had happened. Maybe it wasn’t as bad as it looked?

“Maybe they just had to close the door for some reason and will open it again later? And even if that’s not the case, I’m sure Eda and the others will be able to fix whatever problem they’re having with it really soon.”

Luz’s smile didn’t feel genuine, but she had to believe it was something like that. A temporary problem. Not forever. 

If she didn’t, she would have a mental breakdown, and this was neither the time nor the place for one.

She couldn’t have... just found a place where she felt truly at home for the first time in her life and then have said place along with the wonderful friends she had there taken away from her forever only a few months after she’d first found it.

Amity gave her a skeptic look and sighed. 

“Not to be a buzzkill, Luz, but usually when a door just gets closed, it involves fewer explosions.” Amity reached for Luz’s hand and ran her fingers over Luz’s to calm herself down. It didn’t work that well,  _but it did feel pretty nice. _ “Don’t get me wrong, I... appreciate you trying to calm me down, I really do. But I’m afraid that probably won’t work right now. Whatever happened that caused an explosion like that has to be pretty severe, and... our friends were on the other side of that door. My siblings, too. I just... what if... what if something happened to them? What if they’re hurt?”

That was something else Luz hadn’t wanted to think about.

“I... I’m sure they’re okay. They can take care of themselves, right? Willow is crazy powerful, and Eda is the strongest witch on the Boiling Isles, after all. Whatever just happened, I’m sure they can handle it.”

And she really did believe that. They’d gone through a lot of crazy stuff together. Enough to make Luz believe that their friends could handle whatever the Boiling Isles threw at them. 

The confidence in her voice made Amity smile a bit.

“Yeah, okay, I guess you’re right about that.” 

She squeezed Luz’s hand again. Luz ruffled Amity’s hair, and unlike with her siblings, Amity didn’t mind. It was actually pretty relaxing when Luz did it.

“By the way, I was wrong. This is actually totally my hair clip.”

**Artist:[Rocktell](https://instagram.com/rocktell?igshid=18ngfvxcu3g51) **

  
Luz grinned sheepishly as she put the small clip in her hair above her right eye. She was still 100% sure it wasn’t actually her hair clip, but thinking about how Amity was now so far from home not only because of something as silly as a hair clip,  _but because of a hair clip that didn’t even belong to Luz,_ made her feel really guilty, so of course she was going to wear it.

Also, the fact that Amity had followed her at all because of something like that was adorable and Luz wanted to treasure the memory of it forever.

“You’re a dork, Luz.” The green-haired witch chuckled a bit. _‘But you’re my dork,’_ she added in her head.

“Maybe so. But it looks like you’re stuck with this dork for a little longer, huh? Too bad. I knew you just couldn’t wait to get rid of me.”

Luz winked at her. 

Amity giggled.

_ “Oh no, the horror!” _

That Amity was able to laugh at all in the current situation was honestly amazing, and it just made her love Luz even more.

...it had taken the green-haired witch until that moment to remember the explosion had screwed up her confession.

She sighed.

_ ‘This has to be some kind of record for the universe’s worst timing.’ _

She was still going to tell Luz how she felt about her... but not right now. 

Her heart wouldn’t be in it when all she could think about was how their friends and her siblings were in danger and maybe injured, and how she couldn’t get home anymore. She needed a bit of time to process everything before she could even think about saying anything romantic again.

“...you don’t happen to have your scroll with you, do you?” Luz asked all of a sudden.

Amity thought for a moment.

“I... I think I do, actually. Hang on.” She rummaged through her pockets until she pulled out the scroll. “Why?”

“I’m just thinking... if my phone worked in your realm, this might work in ours? I’m not sure, but it can’t hurt to try, right?”

Luz gave her a small, encouraging smile.

“Hmmm...” Amity opened it, and while everything took ages to load –  _stars, the connection here was terrible_ –, Luz actually turned out to be right. It did work. “Nice work, Luz. I’m going to send everyone a message, maybe we can figure out what happened that way!”

Luz hadn’t expected this to actually work... but that it did... maybe that meant something? Maybe there was magic in this world, after all, even if it wasn’t a lot. 

_ ‘This is really exciting!’ _

She should try casting a spell or two when they were somewhere they could be certain nobody was watching them.

Amity was meanwhile busy sending the same message to Gus, Willow and both of her siblings. 

That this worked here would come in really handy.

_ ‘I’m with Luz. We’re okay, but the door’s gone, so now I can’t come back. What happened?’ _

She didn’t get an immediate reply from anyone.

“Whatever happened probably has them busy...”

Amity was still worried, and that they didn’t immediately write back didn’t make it any better, but there wasn’t exactly anything she could do about it, and staring at the scroll all day wouldn’t help... so she put it back into her pocket. It would inform her if—when—she got a reply from anyone. In the meantime, there was nothing they could do.

Suddenly, Luz’s phone buzzed in her pocket—thankfully, except for a small crack at the top of the screen, it had survived the fall undamaged.

Luz unlocked it. It was a text from her mom. 

She looked at the text, then at the time, and panicked.

_ ‘Can’t wait to see you again!’ _

“Oh gosh I forgot I was supposed to be home in a couple of minutes!” The last twenty minutes had gone by in a blur, she’d lost track of time completely and had also just... of gotten that she was supposed to be going home at all for a moment. And despite the fact that they had deliberately sent her back a little earlier than necessary in case she’d be held up by anything, she was now slowly running out of time. “Mom’s going to be so worried if I’m late, and she’s going to start questioning where I was if I don’t get home when the bus does!” She got up off the ground and offered Amity her hand to help her up as well. “Come on, we have to go!”

Amity stared at Luz’s hand in confusion for a couple of seconds.

“We?”

“Well, yeah! I’m not just going to leave you here! We’ll just- oh, I know! We’ll tell her that you’re a friend I met at camp, and ask her if you can stay for a sleepover! Someone will probably have replied until tomorrow, and then we’ll see what we can do to get you back home.”

Luz’s never ending enthusiasm and optimism never failed to make Amity smile. There was something about Luz that said ‘We can do this!’ even in the most hopeless of situations, and that was just one of the things that Amity loved her so much for.

“I... I don’t know. Isn’t this kind is short notice?”

The green-haired witch rubbed the back of her neck. She was insanely nervous about meeting Luz‘s mom.

_ ‘What if she doesn’t like me? What if she hates me? What if she forbids me from ever seeing Luz again, and then we have to hide our relationship from both of our parents and sneak around constantly and-’ _

Luz interrupted her friend’s panic by putting a hand on her shoulder.

“I don’t think she’ll mind. I never have friends over. If anything, she’s probably going to be super thrilled to meet you!” Luz smiled at Amity as she went to pick up her bag from the ground... Then she froze. “We have to do something about your ears.”

How had she just completely forgotten about that?

The green-haired witch crossed her arms.

“What’s wrong with my ears?”

“Nothing! I think you have very cute ears!” Amity blushed. Stars, everything Luz was saying today was making Amity’s heart flutter – even more than usually. “But humans don’t have pointy ears, so it’s best if nobody sees them.” Luz started rummaging through her bag until she pulled out a black beanie. “Here, that should work.”

She handed it to Amity.

“Huh. Thanks.” 

Luz stared at Amity a little after she put the beanie on. 

_ ‘Wow.’ _

She looked so good with it.

“...okay, you’re keeping that one, you look way too cute in it for me to ever want it back.” 

Amity blushed even harder. She wasn’t sure if she’d still be alive to return home the next day if Luz kept this up.

“I’m... thank you...”

“Just stating the truth.” 

Luz winked at her.  


Okay, this was it. Amity was dying. She was officially dying. 

“Now come on, we have to get going.”

Amity cleared her throat.

“Yeah. Okay. Lead the way.”

The only problem was that Luz couldn’t really remember which way exactly they had to go. She roughly knew the direction her house was probably in, but she hadn’t really paid much attention to which way she was going when she’d first followed Owlbert there. 

That, and she was a bit distracted because of everything that had just happened—and she was also worried about Amity.

The green-haired witch had borrowed one of Luz’s shirts since the explosion had burnt away part of the clothing on her back, and explaining  _that_ to Camila would have been difficult... and while Luz hadn’t actually seen her back when she’d changed, she was pretty sure Amity was hurt.

She was doing a terrible job at hiding it, too—Luz caught her friend wincing every now and again as they walked.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

Amity crossed her arms and looked away.

“Fine. Really. Just really worried.”

She still didn’t want Luz to worry about her. They had more important things to worry about than Amity’s minor injuries. And at least she was able to walk mostly steadily now, so it couldn’t be that bad anyway.

Luz sighed.

“Alright, whatever you say.” 

Her tone made it pretty clear that she wasn’t thrilled. 

She looked around. They were finally out of the woods now, but Luz had missed the street she lived in by a few turns. At least she knew how to get home from here. 

“Okay, now we have to go that way.”

She pointed at the small coffee shop across the street. From there, it was just a left turn and a couple of minutes of walking to her house.

Amity nodded.

“Got it.”

She immediately walked the way Luz had pointed—slightly confused by the small step and the sudden change of pavement, but since she didn’t want to look stupid in front of Luz, she didn’t comment on it.

“You know you don’t have to lie to me, right?”

Luz sounded so hurt. 

Amity’s face fell.

Oh no. She hadn’t meant to... 

Luz wasn’t even looking at her, instead looking left, then right, then left again... anywhere but at Amity. She wasn’t even walking next to her anymore, but had instead stopped right before the small step. 

That wasn’t a good sign. Was she that mad at her? 

Oh no...

“Luz, I’m-”

Luz was still standing at the side of the road, looking left and right to make sure there was no traffic before crossing. There was a car approaching, and it was already too close for them to cross before it reached them, but no traffic aside from that. They’d wait and cross the street after it passed by.

She lifted her head and had a small heart attack when she saw Amity standing in the middle of the road.

“Amity, watch out!”

It was mostly dumb luck combined with inhuman speed that Luz was able to pull Amity out of the way of the fast approaching car she‘d just walked in front of before it hit her.

The person behind the wheel just honked and cursed angrily, not even stopping to check if they’d hurt anyone.

The two girls were both back on the sidewalk now, Amity still frozen in Luz’s arms the same way she had been since Luz had pulled her off the street. 

The human girl was shakily clinging to Amity—who was startled, but mostly just confused.

Luz touching Amity’s back also hurt a little, but she was enjoying being hugged by her way too much to complain about that.

“What  _was_ that?”

That thing hadn’t looked particularly dangerous—it had no teeth, its’ eyes weren’t glowing and it didn’t even follow them when Luz had pulled Amity away from it—but whatever it was had really scared Luz. Was it some kind of monster? Should they have fought it?

_“You can’t just walk onto the street like that without making sure there’s no traffic! ** What were you thinking?!** ”_

Luz was freaking out, her heart beating rapidly out of her chest as she tried and failed to calm her breathing.

_‘ Amity almost got hit by a car. Oh god. Oh god. **Oh god.** ’_

Amity rubbed the back of her neck and smiled sheepishly.

“...yeah, I have no idea what either of these things are.” What made the situation even more confusing to Amity was that there were multiple similar monsters standing around them that she now noticed, but neither of them was moving, and Luz wasn’t freaking out about them. Why was that? What was going on here?

Luz still refused to let go of her, so Amity just went with it put her arms around Luz as well, hoping to calm her down a little. 

She really wanted to ask about the monster, but it felt kind of insensitive to do with how shaken Luz was. 

“I... I’m sorry I scared you.”

Luz just hugged her tighter and started sobbing.

“You didn’t- I’m- Amity, you could have gotten really hurt. God, you could’ve died. I... of course you don’t know what cars or streets are, I’m... We’ve barely been here for half an hour and you already almost... I’m so sorry. I’m horrible at looking out for you.”

_ ‘This was my fault. If anything had happened to Amity...’ _

The thought of not seeing her for a couple of months had been enough to make her feel like she couldn’t breathe. Losing Amity forever was completely unthinkable.

“Hey... hey, no, it’s okay, I should have... I’ve never been here before. I should have known I need to be more careful and paid more attention to what you were doing.” Luz crying was very high up on the list of things Amity couldn’t take. Seeing her crush so upset really, really hurt, and knowing that it was her fault that Luz was crying made it infinitely worse. “It wasn’t your fault, Luz.”

“Yes it was!” Luz protested immediately.

She couldn’t stop shaking.

“No.” Amity hugged her tightly. “I was the one that wasn’t being careful. But I’m okay – all thanks to you. You have nothing to feel guilty about.”

Amity rubbed her friend’s back gently, and Luz buried her head in Amity’s shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I just... I need a minute.”

Amity felt awful. She was mostly okay with the almost dying part—especially since nothing had actually happened, and she hadn’t really known what was going on when it happened anyway, (and honestly she still didn’t)—but the fact that she’d made Luz cry? 

That killed her.

“Shhhh. It’s okay. It’s okay. I’m right here.”

The human girl didn’t even reply. She just hugged her tighter.

A few minutes passed until Luz moved again. She let go of Amity reluctantly and stared off into space for a couple more seconds after that, still shuddering at the memory and trying to shake the thought of what could have happened if she’d reacted a couple seconds too slow.

Amity ruffled her hair.

“Are you feeling a bit better?”

The human girl shook her head.

“Not really... but we’ll be late if we don’t get going right now.” Luz wiped her tears away and reached for Amity’s hand. “Mind if I-”

“Not at all.”

The green-haired girl intertwined her fingers with Luz’s trembling ones, and slowly, the shaking subsided a little.

Luz was still freaked out, but holding hands with Amity felt nice, and it calmed her down a little. It reminded her that Amity was still there, that she was okay, that nothing had happened to her.

They walked the rest of the way like that in silence, and neither of them let go again until they reached their destination.

“Here we are. Home sweet home.”

There was something that made Luz weirdly happy about seeing the small house with its blue roof and white fence. It had been her safe haven for years, and even though it didn’t quite feel like _‘_ _home’_ anymore—she imagined nothing could ever feel as much like home to her as the Boiling Isles did, because there, she felt like she actually  _belonged,_ which she never had in the human realm—there was still comfort in the wonderful familiarity of it all.

She couldn’t wait to get to her room and open her computer to see if any of her favorite fanfics had updated.

Speaking of her room—she’d get to show Amity her room! 

Luz was weirdly excited about that. 

She still hadn’t really processed what had happened earlier—truth be told, she was pretty sure that moment with Amity and the car would probably be haunting her nightmares for a while—but... they’d made it back to Luz's home. Amity was safe now. And Luz would make sure that nothing in this realm would ever threaten to hurt her friend again.

_‘We can listen to my favorite songs together and maybe cuddle and watch a movie, and—oh, oh, maybe we could read a fanfic together and do voices? Eeeek, we’re going to have so much fun together!’_

Maybe that was selfish, but a part of her was a little happy about whatever was going on with the door because it meant she’d get to spend an extra day with Amity before they’d figure out how to get her home tomorrow. 

It distracted Luz a bit from how much she missed the others—that, and she also just loved spending time with Amity.

There were a lot more things in the human world that Luz would have liked to show Amity – too many to fit in a single day—but they’d make the most of the time they had, and maybe Amity could come visit this place again for a couple of days during the next school vacations so they could do more stuff.

When Luz turned to Amity, her friend was still staring at the house.

“It’s not quite Blight Manor, huh?”

Luz rubbed the back of her neck and smiled sheepishly. Sometimes she forgot how rich Amity’s parents were, and how underwhelming something as small as this had to be to her in comparison to the huge building she lived in.

“Exactly.” Amity beamed at Luz. “It looks really cozy. It’s perfect.”

Luz squeezed her hand and smiled.

“You really think so?”

“Yeah. It’s lovely.” The house was really charming, and that it didn’t remind her of her own home in the slightest was the greatest thing in the world. A lot of times, Amity had felt locked up at home with the high, thick walls... and she’d built very similar walls to the ones of Blight Manor around her heart after her parents had forced her to end her friendship with Willow. And there, in the middle of the walls, Amity had been sitting for the last several years, and hadn’t let anyone get close to her again – locked up in a literal castle as well as one of her own construction, like a princess waiting for a knight in shining armor to come rescue her. Luz was less shining armor and more otter suits and weirdly cute tutu-tuxedo-combinations... And she was also exactly what Amity had needed to tear down her own walls and finally allow someone get close to her again. Luz really was Amity’s _‘fearless champion’_ – in more ways than the human girl probably realized. “We should get one of these somewhere on the Boiling Isles when we’re older.”

It took Amity a moment to realize she’d just said _‘we’—_ then she panicked, her face losing a bit of color.

Thankfully, however, Luz didn’t seem to notice it—and even if she  _had, _there was something else that required her full attention a few seconds later, making her forget everything else that might or might not have been through her head previously.

Her mom had stepped out of the house and spotted her.

“Mom!”

Luz wasn’t even sure what got into her, but she started running towards her and threw herself around her mother’s neck.

“Mija!” Camila caught her daughter, chuckled and then hugged her tightly.

“Mom... I... I missed you so much.”

Gosh, she hadn’t even realized how much she’d been longing for a hug from her mom until now. For about a minute, they just stood there embracing each other, neither of them saying a word. 

Luz sobbed a little.

“I missed you, too, cariño. How was your trip home? There’s so much I want to ask you. You have to tell me everything.”

  
Amity couldn’t help but watch awkwardly from a distance how Luz and her mother hugged happily and then started talking to each other excitedly in a language the green-haired witch didn’t understand.

She felt a weird pang of pain and guilt in her stomach as she watched the two of them. She couldn’t remember the last time her own parents had looked at her like that...

Amity felt tears welling up in her eyes. 

She couldn’t help but feel like she was intruding on something incredibly precious and private – something that should have just been between Luz and her mom.

She didn’t belong here. She shouldn’t be disturbing them... and yet, here she was, staring at them like an idiot.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You guuuys, I wasn’t expecting this story to get so much attention I’m crying?  
> All of your feedback was so amazing and motivated me so much, I’ve literally never gotten so much feedback for a single story, you make me so incredibly happy!
> 
> I’m not even kidding, this motivated so much that I pretty much immediately started writing the second chapter, I hope you enjoyed it!  
> Feedback is still extremely appreciated, I'm going to try to reply to as many of your comments as I can!  
> Also, while I do have a bunch of stuff planned already... if you have any ideas about things you want Luz and Amity to do together while they’re in the human realm, let me know and I might include them!
> 
> Also also, massive shoutout to GoG_Kudos for writing literally the greatest comments I have ever gotten and making me laugh so much! (Honestly y’all should go read them, they’re amazing.)  
> And just, in general, a huge “thank you” to everyone that’s given me feedback so far, you guys made my day.  
> My plan is to update on Mondays in the future, the first one being the Monday after “Agony Of A Witch”!  
> We’ll be checking in on what’s been going on on the Boiling Isles next chapter, so stay tuned ^^


	3. A Crossed Line

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have a bunch of things to say before this chapter:  
> 1\. I personally believe more in developing characters than mindlessly hating on them (if there’s any room for development, at least), so this chapter might or might not be building up to something more in the future.
> 
> 2\. I’m going to ignore “Agony Of A Witch” going forward to avoid clashing the continuity of the story with that of the show—the big reveal of the last episode is going to be a part of the story, but it won’t happen the way it did in the show. (The story straying from the show was bound to happen sooner or later, which is why I put the “canon divergence” in as a tag from the very beginning.)
> 
> 3\. Have fun with what is basically a full chapter of everyone (but mainly Eda) yelling at Lilith, I have a feeling y’all need it right now ;)

  
After the blast hit the portal and shattered it into a million pieces, Luz’s and Amity’s entire friend group stood frozen in shocked silence for a second.

Nobody could quite grasp what had just happened.

Where had that blast even come from?

For a moment, Eda just focused on using wind magic to lead the smoke out the door. Afterwards, they could all really see the damage that had been done by the blast. And it was major.

“Well, that door’s busted alright,” Eda stated the obvious after a moment, breaking the silence.

That almost seemed like an understatement, since the splinters of the door were scattered all across the room, and there was nothing left that would have indicated that the remains had once been a portal to another realm to someone that hadn’t previously known it.

“Does that... does that mean they can’t come back?”

King was panicking, holding onto his part of the friendship necklace tightly as he ran up to where the door had been. It couldn’t mean that, right?

Luz and Amity couldn’t be gone for good...

The others exchanged a worried look at what King had just said. They’d been too shocked by what had happened to even think about what it could mean before this moment... but now that he mentioned it...

“Uh oh.”

“Yeah, I’m pretty sure the situation is more severe than just  ‘uh oh’,  Edric,” Emira mumbled.

She felt numb. 

This was bad. 

This was really, _really,_ **_really bad. _**

Sure, she liked teasing Amity occasionally—Amity was her little sister, after all—and she and Edric had taken it too far a bunch of times... but that didn’t mean they didn’t love her.

Messing with each other was a normal thing all siblings did, but that didn’t mean Emira wasn’t a hundred percent ready to throw hands if anyone hurt Amity or Edric.

And the thought of Amity being trapped in another realm, maybe forever, scared and possibly hurt... 

Emira shuddered. Each and every fight they'd ever had was suddenly forgotten, and all she wanted was to hold her little sister in her arms again.

  
  


“Hey, you! Starting fires inside houses can be really dangerous, Hoot Hoot!”

Hooty had wrapped around someone again, and a few seconds later, he dropped Lilith to the floor of the living room.

Eda narrowed her eyes to slits.

“Lilith.”

“Hello Edalyn.”

Eda immediately took hold of her staff.

“We should take this outside.” 

She didn’t wait for an answer and just blasted her sister backwards out the door again, growling. 

She didn’t mind meeting Lilith under normal circumstances, especially since most of their fights were of a more friendly nature, but as soon as Luz got involved, the fun ended.

Lilith had crossed a line this time.

Willow just stood in the door frame with her mouth agape for a few seconds.

“...whoa. I don’t think I’ve ever seen her this angry before.”

“Eda can be terrifying when she wants to be,” King commented as he joined the others to watch the fight.

Meanwhile, Lilith had picked herself up off the ground and raised her own staff.

“Why did you do it? _What did Luz ever do to you?!”_

Eda was the only one that at the moment could fully grasp what it meant that the portal was gone, since none of the others really knew how long it had taken her to create this portal in the first place.

And that Luz wouldn’t be able to come back wasn’t even the worst part of it. 

Despite the fact that Eda was livid about that, and despite knowing that Luz was going to be crushed to an extent that Eda didn’t even want to think about because if she did, she’d start crying... she knew Luz would have no trouble surviving in the realm she’d grown up in. She wouldn’t be happy, but she’d manage.

Amity however was a different story.

Lilith dodged another one of her sister’s blasts as she answered, readying herself to return fire.

“Belos gave me a choice. He told me to get rid of Luz, one way or another. And I did. Now everyone’s back in the realm they belong in, nobody got hurt and Luz is forever out of danger. It’s best for everyone involved that way.”

Lilith knew she’d done the right thing. Luz didn’t belong here, and she’d spent the summer almost dying more times than Lilith could count. Life here wasn’t safe for a fragile human like Luz... and being locked out of a realm she didn’t belong in was a fate way better than what the Emperor had had in mind for Luz when he’d first tasked Lilith with taking care of the human girl.

“Keep telling yourself that, Lily.” Eda glared daggers at her sister. “Oh, and solid job on locking your own protégée out of the Boiling Isles, by the way.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Amity went through the door after Luz,” Emira chimed in. Her voice was scarily monotone. “Now she’s trapped on the other side of the portal you just destroyed.”

A part of Emira still felt numb, unable to grasp entirely what had just happened, and what that meant. But there was rage boiling under the surface of her numbness, and it was just waiting for the right moment to boil over.

Knowing who was responsible for what had happened made everything so much worse.

Emira knew that Amity looked up to Lilith in a way she did to nobody else—Lilith was her mentor, her hero, and maybe even a bit like a mother to her. Knowing that she was the one responsible for locking Amity out of this realm, trapping her far away from the only home she’d ever known, as well as possibly hurting her... that was too much. If Amity ever found out about that, her whole life would fall apart.

Emira felt sick just thinking about it.

_ “What?!” _

Lilith was so stunned about what the young witch had just said that she froze where she was standing rather than dodging Eda’s next blast, which as a result sent her flying backwards into a tree.

“That’s right. Not only did you mess up my kid’s life, you also managed to mess up the one of the kid you’ve been mentoring. Killed two witches with one fire spell, so to say.”

That was another one of Luz’s weird sayings that Eda had picked up from her human during the last few months for some reason. Humans said weird things, but some of them really stuck with Eda when Luz said them. 

She was a good kid, and Eda would already have missed her terribly without the added factor of her not being able to return, and it just fueled her anger even more. 

Lilith talking about how righteous everything she did was, and how she just wanted what was best for everyone, usually merely annoyed Eda a bit, but that she was somehow trying to portray _this_ as  ‘ _doing the right thing’_ was taking it too far.

Eda had seen the light in Luz’s eyes when she’d cast a spell for the first time. How her face lit up each time she learned a new spell. How she smiled when she could show off what she’d learned to Eda and King and her friends.

Luz had been dreaming of the life she had here for as long as she could remember, and everyone here knew that. She’d worked incredibly hard to get as far as she’d gotten, and  _**nobody**_ was allowed to take that away from her.

By now, the others had come out of the house after Emira, all of them standing with a bit of a distance to Lilith and Eda as they watched the fight.

...well, except for the twins, who seemed unbothered by the amount of spells aimed in both directions as they drew closer.

“Are you happy now?! Do you have any idea how much it would crush Amity to know what you just did?!  _**Would you even care?!”**_

That was it. Emira has officially gone ballistic.

**“Nobody is allowed to mess with our little sister except us, got it?!”** Edric growled as he stepped next to his sister, arms crossed.

Lilith had finally picked her jaw and herself back off the floor, just in time to reflect Eda’s next blast.

“W-why would Amity do that?”

She was still in a state of shock, unable to process what she’d just heard.

“Does that matter?!  _Do you think you’ll feel any better about what you did if we tell you that?!”_

Edric glared at her.

“Besides, it’s not like the fact that Amity cares about Luz is some well-kept secret! The entire school knows! Why do you think she was here to say goodbye to her in the first place?!” Willow shouted from behind them.

She hadn’t wanted to get in the middle of the fight, but she couldn’t stop herself from shouting at Lilith.

How anyone could be this ignorant and divorced from reality was beyond her.

“Yeah, what she said!” King added, his tiny fist raised angrily. “If anything happened to them, you will feel my wrath!”

Edric and Emira shared a glance, then nodded at each other and cast a spell together. A few seconds later, there were multiple versions of them standing around everyone, and each version was staring daggers at Lilith.

Eda nodded at the teens.

“While I absolutely approve of all the unnecessary effort you two just put into staring my sister down, you kids need to scram.  _All of you._ This isn’t your fight, and I don’t need anyone to get caught in the crossfire, got it?”

Lilith shook her head as she reflected another one of her sister’s blasts back at her.

“This is ridiculous, Edalyn. I’m just here to arrest  _you_. We both know I’d never hurt any of these kids.”

“Yeah, you’re right.” Eda said, her voice distant and cold instead of the teasing tone she normally used around Lilith. “Up until a few moments ago, I thought I knew that.”

“I-”

Lilith had no reply for that. The words got stuck in her throat, and what was worse was that she couldn’t even blame Eda for what she was saying, knowing what had happened to Amity.

Lilith had really messed up, and she couldn’t deny that, as much as she wanted to.

“You’ve gone too far this time, Lily.” Eda reflected the next blast of fire that her sister aimed at her back no problem. Lilith dodged. “How does it feel knowing that? I know you could have found some way to excuse the thing with Luz, but Amity? You know how powerful her parents are. You’ll be in big trouble when Belos hears about this.”

_ “Do you think that’s the only thing I care about?!” _

“Considering you were willing to destroy Luz’s life just because this bonehead told you to? _Can you really blame me?!”_ Eda shot back immediately.

A part of her wanted to hurt Lilith—really, really hurt her—for what she had just done... but she didn’t. She couldn’t. Even amidst her feelings of pure rage, she couldn’t bring herself to hurt her sister.

“You don’t understand anything, do you, Edalyn? I was just trying to protect Luz!”

Lilith hadn’t wanted to accidentally involve Amity in this whole mess—and she’d do anything in her power to get her back to the right realm once she’d returned to the Emperor’s Castle—but she was still convinced that what she’d done was best for the human girl Eda loved like a daughter.

“ _Protect her?!_ You have got to be kidding me! You’re not even fooling yourself with the nonsense that’s coming out of your mouth right now, are you?!” Upon realizing that Luz’s friends were still standing around them, and that the twins were even actively about to get themselves involved in the fight – Emira especially, that was a witch ready to throw hands if Eda had ever seen one—Eda shifted her focus to them for a few seconds. “I mean it, kids. Get out of here before you get hurt. King, that includes you.”

The king of demons raised his voice in protest.

“But-”

Eda glared at him, and he went quiet immediately.

“That wasn’t meant to be a choice! Willow, I’m counting on you to be the sane one, please don’t disappoint me. Get the others out of here.” 

Willow sighed.

“You got it.”

She grabbed hold of Gus, ushered King back inside the Owl House and then went on to figure out which versions of the twins were the real ones, so she could drag them after her as well.

When she did, she was met with immediate protest.

“You can’t-”

“We have to-”

“Amity needs-”

Willow was having none of it.

“The only thing Amity needs right now is you two not accidentally getting yourselves killed. We’ll find a way to get her back. But it won’t help anyone if you two end up dead before we do, got it? I’ve seen Eda fight before. She’s got this, as long as we don’t get in her way.” Willow’s voice was stern, and she wasn’t sure when exactly she’d accidentally become the mom of these older teens, but Eda was right. At least one of them had to be the responsible one. “Now you can either come along willingly or I’ll use my vines to drag you after me. Your choice.”

“That’s not really a choi-” Edric started, but Willow didn’t even let him finish.

“The vines it is.”

Lilith raised her voice again, causing Eda to turn around once more.

“You’re lucky I didn’t tell anyone your location and just waited for this to happen instead! If any of the other coven members had found Luz, death would have been the merciful option!”

That got Eda’s attention, alright.

_** “WHAT?!” ** _

“Belos wants Luz gone, Edalyn. She’s powerful, and because she works with you, he sees her as a threat. If I hadn’t locked her out of this realm, she would’ve been killed by another coven member or captured and tortured. Emperor’s orders.”

Eda felt sick.

_ “She’s just a child!” _

“Do you think that matters to him?!” Lilith yelled. “I did you a favor by destroying that portal!”

“No. What you really did by doing that was taking the easy way out.” Eda growled. “I can’t believe you’re still willing to work for someone who gives these kinds of orders!  _**Aren’t you supposed to protect the next generation of witches, you hypocrite?!”**_

“I don’t have a choice!” Lilith yelled back at her.

Every word out of her sister’s mouth made Eda angrier. She was willing to face the Emperor himself for daring to mess with her kid, and that her sister was still working under him despite what she’d just told Eda,  _and_ _that she was somehow still trying to portray what she had done as something_ _**good** and  **right**_ just made her even angrier.

** “Does telling yourself that make you feel better?!” **

Lilith reflected another blast, but it was obvious that her head wasn’t really in the fight anymore, and it landed far from where she had aimed it.

Gus flinched and hid behind Willow when the blast hit a tree a little too close to them for comfort, and it seemed that now, even the twins had understood just how dangerous it could be to get in the way of this fight. 

Eda and Lilith were arguably the two most powerful witches on the Boiling Isles, after all.

And finally, the four young witches started moving. 

They’d all stood there frozen for a few seconds, too shocked to move because of what Lilith had just revealed, but the tree catching fire had snapped them all out of their state of shock immediately.

They all shared a look, and then they started running. It was really high time to get out of there now.

For a few minutes, all four of them just ran as fast as their legs would carry them, without a set goal except ‘ _away from the fight’,_ until eventually, they stopped to catch their breath.

“Well that... that was terrifying,” Gus mumbled after breathing in and out for a few seconds.

The twins exchanged a look.

Edric whistled.

“And we thought the sleep spell she did on the Slitherbeast was impressive.”

“Yeah, she’s really strong,” Willow agreed. “And I get that you two are angry, I really do. So am I. Luz and Amity mean the world to me. But getting caught in the crossfire won’t help get them back.”

Gus looked up at her. He was a bit at loss with the situation.

“So... what do we do now? How do we get them back without the portal?”

Willow thought for a moment.

“Logically speaking, we can’t get them back onto the Isles if we don’t have a portal for them to step through. Meaning, we either have to find a way to fix the one that Lilith destroyed, which seems... difficult because of how little remains of it... or we have to create a new one.”

Emira sighed.

“...and the only one we know that might know how to do that is Eda, who is currently... kind of busy.”

Willow nodded.

“We'll meet back at the Owl House tomorrow to discuss our next steps with her. In the meantime, act as if everything's normal. The fewer people know about this, the better. Edric, Emira, can you two cover for Amity for today?”

The twins nodded.

“I don’t think that’ll be very hard. If she doesn’t show up to dinner, our parents will probably just assume she fell asleep in the library again.”

“Good.” There was something unreadable in Willow’s expression. “I... just don’t want her to get in trouble with them.”

“Don’t worry. We got this. And when push comes to shove... we can always do this.” Edric drew a small blue circle in front of him to create an illusion of Amity, just to make it disappear again a few seconds later. “See?”

Gus looked a little doubtful about that part of the plan.

“Don’t you think your parents will notice that’s not actually their daughter?”

The look on everyone’s faces made him close his mouth again really quickly. Suddenly, the others seemed hell-bent on changing the topic.

“Sooo... what are you guys doing for the rest of the day?” Edric’s attempt to lighten the mood didn’t really work and just made everyone even more tense. He sighed. “Stars, this is one messed up situation, huh?”

Willow sighed.

“Tell me about it. I can’t stop thinking about Luz and Amity on the other side of the portal and what might have happened to them. I just hope they’re not hurt,” she murmured.

Amity hadn’t been out the door for that long before it combusted, and since she’d closed it, it was hard to tell if she’d still been close enough to it to be hurt by the explosion.

Willow wasn’t even sure how the door exploding in one realm would affect the other realm, but since it connected the two, it had to exist in both to at least some extent... meaning that the explosion might have—and probably had—effected both sides of the portal. That thought worried her.

Emira growled.

“If there’s so much as a scratch on Mittens because of what happened, I’m going to kill Lilith. _I don’t care how powerful she thinks she is. If she hurt my little sister, she’ll pay.”_

Edric nodded and clenched his fists.

“I’m right there with you, Em. She won’t know what hit her.”

“Like I said, I get it. But I think right now, I think our focus should be more on restoring the portal to save Amity and to make sure Luz can come back here again anytime she wants.”

Gus sighed and looked at Willow with a mixture of worry and fear in his eyes.

“Do... do you guys really think we’ll be able to get them back?”

Willow smiled a little.

“Of course. We’re stubborn, aren’t we? Especially when it comes to helping our friends. Maybe it’s time for us to solve a problem with a good attitude and a dope music soundtrack in Luz’s name for a change.”

That lifted the mood a little... until suddenly, Emira’s mind wandered back to the last thing they’d heard before leaving the two adult witches behind, and her expression darkened again.

“So... who’s going to break it to Amity what the coven she’s wanted to join since she was a little kid is planning to do to the girl she loves if Luz ever returns here?”

Meanwhile, the fight between the two Clawthorne sisters was drawing to a close. 

Two more blasts and Eda was finished with her sister. Lilith was tired out, so much that she collapsed to the ground against a tree, unable to try and cast another spell if she’d wanted to. But she didn’t even try.

They were relatively far away from the Owl House now—Eda had drawn the fight further and further away from her home at every opportunity she’d had to make sure King and Hooty were safe.

“Edalyn, you have to understand, I was just trying to-”

“What?  _Protect her? **Protect me?! ”**_ Eda walked up to her sister and grabbed her by the collar. “Are you still trying to justify what you did?! Luz was never happy at home. But she was happy here. And you took that away from her.  _You crushed a young girl’s dream and talk about it like it’s something to be proud of._ And you messed up Amity’s life in the process... the girl you were mentoring, the one that  _**you**_ were supposed to **protect!** ” She was shaking with rage, so filled with adrenaline that she didn’t even feel how tired out she herself was. It would catch up to her soon enough... but for now, she was too angry to feel anything else.  **“You know nothing about the human realm! Do you have any idea how dangerous it is there for someone like her?! She trusted you!”**

Amity was a good kid. She deserved better than her terrible parents, and she deserved better than a mentor who was careless enough to ruin her life by accident.

“I-”

Once again, Lilith’s words got stuck in her throat, and nothing came out.

But even if it had... her sister didn’t give her a chance to say anything before she interrupted her again.

“No. This time  **_you_** ’ll listen,” Eda growled, lifting her sister a bit higher and looking her straight in the eyes. “You always believe you’re doing the right thing, no matter how in the wrong you are. And I’m so incredibly tired of hearing that  over and  over and  over again . You’ve been trying to  ‘ _save_ ’ me for such a long time now. To help me get back on the  ‘ _right_ ’ track.” There was poison in Eda’s words. Lilith had had her fair share of fights with her sister in the past – both as kids and as adults –, but she couldn’t remember ever seeing Eda that angry before. “Maybe I’m not the one who lost her way, Lily. Maybe I’m the one that still saw clearly after they’d forced you into blind obedience. Maybe that’s why I ran. Maybe I saw what they were doing to you, and when I tried to pull you out of their grasp and failed, Iknew the only thing left for me to do was run. But you never stopped to think about that, did you? You were so busy trying to ‘ _save_ ’ me that you never considered  **you could be the one that needs saving.”** Eda let go of her sister’s collar and dropped her to the ground. When she spoke again, the poison in her words was gone... replaced by the one possible thing that was worse. Disappointment. “You ruined the lives of two kids today.  _I hope you’re proud of yourself, Lily.”_

And just like that, Eda was gone, and Lilith was alone in the woods, her surroundings seemingly void of noise except for the cold autumn breeze of the Isles that circulated around her, her sister‘s voice still ringing in her ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I swear, this chapter was always going to be what the content is right now, the new episode just made it that much more satisfying to write xD
> 
> I was worried you guys might not like this one as much as the last because it’s not focused on Luz and Amity, but since the new episode riled the entire fandom up, this was probably as cathartic to read as it was for me to write 😂
> 
> Next week, we’re going back to the human realm and Amity will finally meet Camila! ^^
> 
> I’m full-on planing to patch up everyone’s broken hearts with the fluffiest Lumity-chapter imaginable after the finale wrecks us all, so you guys can look forward to that ;)
> 
> Also, eeeeek, the story has reached 1k kudos! Not sure how that happened, but thank you guys so much, I’m in tears, I don’t even know what to say...🥺😭
> 
> All your comments are so amazing and make me so incredibly happy and motivated, you guys are amazing thank you so much!
> 
> I hope you enjoyed the chapter, feedback is extremely appreciated!  
> See you on Monday after the season finale!
> 
> (And yes this is totally on schedule since it’s now been Monday where I live for about twenty minutes😂)


	4. Little White Lies

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The chapter is a little late, I’m sorry. I tried finishing it earlier, but it just wouldn’t end, and that’s despite the fact that I moved a couple of scenes that I actually wanted to do in this chapter into the next because it was just getting... way too long.  
> And the chapter is somehow still more than 6k words long 😅😂
> 
> I hope you guys enjoy it, this one was a lot of fun to write.  
> The next update will be next week on Saturday instead of Monday since 1) I want to move the update day to Saturday now that the show is on hiatus because that’s when the episodes would usually come out, and 2) because I’m going to be pretty busy this week and won’t get to write on this story that much.  
> I hope that’s okay for you guys! And hey, at least you get an extra long chapter as compensation for the longer wait.
> 
> A huge shoutout to GoG_Kudos who gave me the idea for the toothbrush scene, I had so much fun with that concept, so I especially hope you enjoy this chapter.
> 
> Also, I personally do not speak Spanish, which is why I’m not going to be using it a huge amount in this story. I do however have a friend, Grinux (you guys should go check out her tumblr, her art is incredible), who is a native speaker and helps me with the translations so I can at least include a bit, so shoutout to her as well!

  
It took Luz a couple of minutes of embracing her mother to realize Amity was still standing on the sidewalk, rubbing her left arm awkwardly as she faced the ground.

“I’ll tell you everything inside, okay?” Or, well, Luz would tell her mom everything that she  _ could _ tell her without mentioning the Boiling Isles. Or magic. Or the fact that she never actually went to camp. “But first, there’s someone I’d like you to meet. Be right back.”

Before her mom could reply, Luz walked up to Amity again.

“Hey, you com...ming?” Luz faltered when she realized how upset her friend looked. Amity was extremely tense, she didn’t even look up at first when Luz tapped on her shoulder. “...are you okay?”

She definitely didn’t look okay.

Amity bit her lip and took a moment to wipe the tears off her cheeks before she lifted her head and faced Luz. 

Thinking of her own parents stung in the worst possible way. But this wasn’t the time or place to discuss that.

“Fine! I’m fine.” She rubbed the back of her neck. The first word came out too fast, but the second sentence already sounded a lot more believable. “I just... really want your mom to like me.”

That wasn’t even a lie. She was really nervous about that. It just wasn’t the whole story.

Luz looked at her friend with sparkling eyes and a smile so bright that it turned Amity’s brain to mush.

“Awww, Amity, don’t worry about that so much. I know she’ll like you.”

The green-haired witch was unconvinced. And nervous. Really, really nervous.

“But what if she doesn’t? What if she hates me?”

She was freaking out. A lot.

Luz squeezed her shoulder encouragingly.

“She’s not going to hate you. But it’s cute that you’re so nervous.”

That got a blush out of Amity, who then took a moment to clear her throat and close her eyes to take a breath.

“I...” She sighed. “Okay. I’m coming.”

She couldn’t avoid this meeting forever, after all... could she?

_ ‘Pull yourself together. You can do this. You can do this.  ** You can do this. ** This is just your crush’s mom, and you have to impress her because if you don’t, she’s going to hate you, and then Luz is going to hate you and then you’ll never get to kiss her.  ** No pressure.’ ** _

A part of Amity just wanted to turn on her heel and run away... but Luz was looking at her so expectantly and Amity didn’t want to disappoint her crush—that, and Amity was pretty sure she’d actually get eaten by one of these human realm monsters she knew nothing about this time if she actually ran.

The green-haired witch was completely lost in her thoughts as she moved towards the house, not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything else because she was so nervous... and then she tripped.

That she didn’t fall was mostly due to Luz’s quick reaction, who was able to catch her just in time.

“Huh, and I thought I was the klutz in this friendship,” Luz joked as she let go of Amity after the green-haired witch had managed to steady herself again. ‘Whew, that was a little too close for comfort.’

Amity just stood frozen in place for a moment and didn’t say a word.

She would have been more excited about Luz holding her for a few seconds if she hadn’t been so mortified about the fact that Luz’s mom had just seen... all that.

_ ‘Oh stars, she’s going to hate me. She’s going to hate me. She probably already hates me!’ _

Amity couldn’t remember ever being this nervous about anything in her entire life. 

Why was she so good at embarrassing herself in front of people when it really mattered?

Luz smiled at her mom when she and Amity walked up to her.

Camila looked at them in surprise and a tad bit of confusion as she waved slightly. She’d hoped Luz would make some friends at camp, but she hadn’t expected her daughter to bring one home...

Still, her Luz’s happy enthusiasm as she introduced her friend made her mother smile.

“Mom, this is my friend Amity. Amity, this is my mom, Camila.”

Luz looked from Amity to her mom and then back at Amity, and then waited for either of them to speak up in response.

“Hi!” Amity’s voice was way too high-pitched, and she gave Camila the most forced, unnatural grin imaginable. She stayed frozen like that for a couple of seconds, not sure if anyone was expecting her to say anything else. Then she spoke up again. “I’m Amity!”

Amity’s voice got even squeakier by the second sentence. Then she remembered that Luz had already introduced her and just wished for the ground to open up beneath her and swallow her whole.

“Nice to meet you?”

Camila raised an eyebrow, a little bit amused by how nervous the green-haired girl obviously was.

Luz put a hand around her friend’s waist to calm her down... and it did, but Amity was also struggling not to flinch because Luz’s arm was touching her back. She wasn’t sure when it had started to hurt  _ this much,  _ but she put on a brave face and went back to trying not to embarrass herself in front of Luz’s mom even more than she already had.

“Nice to meet you, too!”

Amity said it too fast again and continued to give Camila that forced grin.

“I met her at camp.” Luz smiled at Amity and then looked at Camila as she continued, “I know it’s short notice, but... can she stay here tonight?”

Camila blinked in surprise.

“Luz-”

Her daughter didn’t let her finish.

“Before you say no... there’s actually a pretty good reason why it would be... kinda great if she could stay here tonight.”

“Oh?”

Amity was just as surprised as Camila was. Sure, Luz had gone over some of the basics with her, like what exactly the camp was that they’d supposedly been at... but she couldn’t remember Luz ever mentioning anything about a reason for the last-minute sleepover.

“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Amity kind of... doesn’t have any luggage with her. Well, there’s a reason for that.” Luz wasn’t sure when exactly she had come up with the story, but she was rolling with it now. “Amity’s suitcase was stolen earlier. We don’t know exactly when it happened, but at some point during the drive home, we both took a short nap, and when we woke up again, it was gone. Just like that. The worst thing about that is probably that her plane ticket was in there, so now she can’t get home. The only thing she still has with her is her phone because that was in her pocket, but she hasn’t been able to reach her parents yet.”

Amity didn’t know what more than half of these things were, but she just went along with what Luz was saying and nodded whenever she felt it was appropriate.

“Sounds like you’ve had quite the day, huh?” Camila gave Amity a warm smile. No wonder the poor girl was so tense. She probably would have been okay with Amity staying the night either way despite the short notice, as long as her parents were, but she definitely wouldn’t say no now. “A warning would be nice next time, but of course she can stay here tonight. Just keep trying to reach your parents, okay, Amity?”

Amity just nodded shyly and prayed to the titan silently that her parents would never find out about what had happened. She’d be in big trouble if they did...

“You’re the best.”

Luz hugged her mom again. Camila smiled as she hugged her daughter back.

“Alright, now come on in, you two. And Amity... don’t worry, I promise I don’t bite.”

Amity looked at Luz in horror as they followed her mother inside.

“That’s a thing here?”

She had a hard time keeping her voice down because of how freaked out she was.

Luz could barely keep herself from laughing out loud.

“No, it’s not. It’s just a saying,” she whispered. “Believe me, if we had any greeting ritual that involved biting, I would have given you a warning.”

Amity exhaled loudly and relaxed a little as they stepped inside.

The house was nice. There were a lot of things missing that she would have expected from a Boiling Isles-home, and something inside her ached at the lack of magic... but it was comfy and cute and she liked it. It also smelled really nice, and Amity felt her mouth water.

It smelled unlike any food she’d ever tasted, but it smelled good, and she heard her stomach rumble at the prospect of food.

Luz elbowed her friend.

“Sounds like someone’s hungry.”

Amity crosses her arms.

“Well, yeah. Can you blame me? I mean, it’s not my fault  _ someone _ decided to steal my lunch.”

That ‘ _someone_ ’ was actually Luz, and she hadn’t really stolen it—they’d shared—but Camila of course assumed Amity was referring to her stolen bag.

“Since Luz didn’t warn me she would bring someone, I only bought food for two people, but I’m sure we’ll find something for you to eat. What do you like to eat?”

“I-”

Amity froze. She didn’t know any of the food they ate here, so whatever she answered, it wouldn’t end well.

“Actually... she can have part of what you got for me, I’m not that hungry anyway,” Luz interrupted them and smiled at Amity as they stepped into the dining room. She could already tell what her mom had bought from the smell alone. “Sit down, yeah? I’ll go get a knife to cut the sandwich and an extra plate.”

“...okay.”

Amity sat down at the table and stared at the food. It looked as good as it smelled, but as nice as the house looked, she still felt like an intruder. She stayed mostly silent until Luz returned with the third plate and the knife and sat down in between Amity and her mom.

The human girl then cut her sandwich in half and put one of the halves on the new plate.

“Here you go!” Luz set the plate down in front of Amity and lowered her voice a bit as she added, “I know it’s not the kind of food you usually eat, but... I hope you’ll like it anyway.”

“Thanks. And I’m sure I will.” She smiled shyly in the direction of Luz and her mom as she bit into the sandwich for the first time.  _ ‘Titan, this is amazing.’ _

Amity ate her half of the sandwich mostly in silence—and whatever it was that was in this, it tasted amazing and Amity needed more of it at some point in the future— until eventually, it was all gone, and she wasn’t hungry anymore.

Luz in the other hand was very, very occupied with talking to her mother and barely focused on the food at all, despite enjoying it a lot. The conversation went... surprisingly well, and there wasn’t a single instance where her mother seemed to doubt that she’d actually been at camp.

At least partly, this was probably due to the fact that Luz had actually bothered to look up what she’d have learned at camp if she’d actually gone there, and she’d spent her last two weeks on the Boiling Isles studying the basics so her mom wouldn’t get suspicious. 

Because of that, she also knew which pictures she could and which pictures she couldn’t show to her mom – she’d even made a specific folder to that. 

Over her glorious years of making amvs, Luz had eventually gotten pretty decent at editing, and she wasn’t so bad at photoshopping either, so now she had a bunch of pictures of her and her friends in ‘camp’ that she could show to her mom.

Since she’d edited the pictures so that the ears of her friends looked human, she could stay relatively close to the truth and actually talk about the friends she’d really made over the summer instead of just making something up entirely.

(Gus had been really excited about the edited pictures where he looked human and had immediately created copies of them so he could put them up on his wall.)

She didn’t show her mom a single photo from school, for obvious reasons—sure, there were buildings on the camp grounds there, but they were of course way smaller than Hexside, and also... less weird. Luz trusted herself to edit out at least some of the weirdness from the pictures, but there was so much at Hexside that that seemed pretty much impossible.

Luz had made sure to take some photos outside and in the woods that surrounded the Owl House to make it look like the camp was, well, actually a camp— but she’d also sprinkled in as many of the regular photos she’d taken over the summer, provided she’d been able to make them look more ‘normal’ relatively easily.

“That’s Gus, this is Willow and look, here’s one with Amity!”

Camila was pleasantly surprised.

“Wow, that’s... you really made a lot of friends there, didn’t you?”

Luz nodded and smiled.

“They’re all really amazing...” She sighed. “It hasn’t even been a day and I miss them already.”

“You have their numbers, right? Even if they don’t live anywhere close, that means you can still write them and call them anytime you want,” Camila said, in an attempt to cheer her daughter up a little. “Just like we did all summer, with the texts and the letters.”

There was an alarm bell that went off inside Luz’s head at the word ‘letters’, but she just kind of shrugged it off. Her mom was probably just getting something mixed up. She hadn’t sent any letters, after all.

“Yeah. I guess. But that’s not the same. I can’t exactly hug anyone through the phone... I wouldn’t have missed hugging you all summer if I could, after all.”

“Oh mija, you’re going to make me cry.” 

Camila pulled her daughter into another hug. Oh, how she’d missed Luz. 

Guilt about her decision to send her daughter to camp had been eating away at Camila for the past three months, and even when Luz had told her that she was having fun at camp, there had always been a flicker of doubt in the back of Camila’s mind that her daughter was just telling her what she wanted to hear... but Luz looked genuinely happy in the pictures. Camila hadn’t seen her child this happy for as long as she could remember, and Luz’s bright smiles in the different pictures warmed her mother’s heart.

Camila wanted her daughter to be happy. She really did. And it wasn’t like she’d really wanted to change who Luz was as a person by sending her to camp—she was just... worried. Worried that one day, Luz’s impulsiveness would get her into a lot of trouble and lead to herself or someone else getting severely hurt.

Camila couldn’t bear thinking about that. Luz was all the world to her mother. If anything had happened to her...

She shuddered.

For what it was worth, something about Luz  _ did _ seem different now that she was back – although how much exactly she had changed was hard to tell since she’d only been back for such a short time. She was definitely still Luz, but she seemed... a little more grown up.  


Maybe the last couple of months had been exactly what she needed.

The other teens on the pictures looked nice, too, and Luz had a lot of good things to say about most of them that drew really sympathetic pictures of them. Apparently Luz had even befriended one of the chaperones, who sounded like she was an interesting person from the way Luz described her.

All in all, Camila got the impression that Luz had learned a lot, made a bunch of friends and become happier over the summer. That was everything that Camila had wished for and so much more.

“It sounds like you’ve had a great summer.”

Luz beamed.

“I really had.” 

She scrolled through more of the photos and showed her mom pictures of herself with the troublemakers and her best friends and Eda.

Luz felt happy when looking at the pictures and showing them to her mom, but that wasn’t all she felt. 

Slowly but steadily, more and more guilt was creeping into the back of Luz’s mind, and it got worse with every little harmless lie that she told. 

Maybe lying to her mom about so many things was bad... but she and Amity couldn’t exactly tell Camila what really happened, could they? 

Luz was still planning to tell her mother about everything eventually—but not yet. She was still too afraid of her mother forbidding her from ever going back to the Boiling Isles when she found out the truth, and Luz also didn’t want to get into a fight with her mom so shortly after she’d gotten back—especially not with Amity around to see it. 

Luz didn’t want her friend to witness that, especially not because it was possible for Amity to get caught in the crossfire, despite none of this being her fault.

Amity remained mostly silent while Luz was talking to her mother. Even after the green-haired witch had finished her meal, she just glanced at the photos every now and again and answered questions when she was directly spoken to rather than initiating a conversation herself. Her answers were usually as short as possible because she didn’t want to say anything that might accidentally give away that what Luz was telling her mother was at least partly made up... and Amity also figured the less she spoke, the less she could seem like an idiot from her answers.

At least she didn’t feel like Camila hated her, which was definitely worth something, but a lot of times Amity still felt too nervous to speak because she was so afraid of saying something wrong and making Luz’s mom hate her after all.

Aside from the bit of conversation Amity heard and actively participated in, she spent the time glancing around the room—she spotted some really adorable photos of Luz as a child which held her attention prisoner for a while, and afterwards, she spent a lot of time looking at different kinds of strange devices and thinking about what they might be for.

Most of her guesses were probably complete nonsense, but it helped her pass the time and not focus on how hard it was for her to watch how genuinely Camila cared about her daughter when Amity herself hadn’t felt like her parents cared about anything but her success in years. Sometimes she felt like she was less like a daughter to them than an achievement they could show off to their friends. The thought made her feel sick, and for some reason, no matter how hard she tried, she never quite seemed to escape it.

Luz didn’t miss the fact that her friend was upset for very long.

“Hey mom... is it okay if we continue this some other time?” 

Luz glanced at Amity, and her mother nodded.

“Of course.”

Camila had tried her best to include Luz’s friend in the conversation, but it was obvious enough that Amity’s mind was elsewhere.

It was clear she was tense from the way she was sitting, and Camila hadn’t missed that the girl looked upset. Giving Amity and Luz some alone time was probably the best the adult could do for them right now.

Luz got up to put the plates into the dishwasher, then tapped on her friend’s shoulder.

The green-haired witch was having a hard time keeping it together when she lifted her head. Luz offered her a hand.

“Come on, Amity. Let me show you around.” They’d just left the dining room when Luz came to a sudden halt and looked directly at Amity. “What’s wrong? Did... did I make you feel excluded? I’m sorry...”

Amity shook her head.

“It’s not that, it’s-” She sighed. “I don’t really want to talk about it right now. I don’t want to think about it anymore. Is that okay?”

“Sure.” Luz smiled at her and squeezed her hand. “Just... remember that I’m there for you if you ever do want to talk.”

“I... I will. And thank you, Luz.”

Even if she couldn’t always find the words and the strength to talk about everything... that Luz was there to listen if she ever did, meant the world to Amity.

“Of course. Now come on, I’ll show you around, that should distract you a bit.”

After a quick tour of the house—humans really had a lot of strange stuff—Luz lead Amity into her bedroom.

After the green-haired witch was done gushing about the Azura merch—it took a while for that to happen –, gestured for her friend to sit down on the bed. She did, and Luz sat down next to her.

“Your room is amazing,” Amity exclaimed, still completely in awe.

“Awww, thank you.” Luz blushed a bit. “Make yourself at home, okay?”

Amity nodded and looked around the room, and was really excited to finally ask about some of the things she didn’t recognize and was curious about.

She picked up something from the nightstand that looked like it was two small knobs on a string and held it towards Luz.

“What’s this for?”

Luz smiled when she realized her friend had picked up her headphones.

“I’ll show you, wait.” She plugged the headphones into her phone and handed them to Amity. “You put them into your ears, like this... and then you just press the ‘play’-button in your cellphone and you’ll hear music. Wanna try?”

She waited for her friend to nod before she turned on the music.

Amity yelped and threw the headphones across the room.

“What kind of human torture device is that?!” she shrieked.

“They’re just headphones. They’re... for listening to music.” Luz picked them up off the floor and put them on—and then realized why her friend had reacted the way she had. “Oh. Right. I set them to full volume.” She bit her lip and carefully reached out to touch Amity’s ears. “ I’m so sorry, I didn’t mean to... does it hurt very much?”

“I... ow... a little.” That Amity’s head was still throbbing a bit from earlier wasn’t really helping, either... but at least Luz touching her ears felt nice. “But I’ll be okay. Just don’t make me put these back on again, alright?”

“Of course. Sorry.” Luz disconnected the headphones and put the phone on the table to play the music through the speaker instead. “Is that okay?”

Amity closed her eyes for a moment to take the music in, and eventually, she started tapping her fingers to the beat.

“Oh. Huh. This is... actually kinda nice.” Now that she didn’t feel like the music was out to kill her ears anymore, she found herself liking the sound. It wasn’t the kind of magic music she was used to, but it still sounded pretty good – and the sound almost had its own magic to it, despite technically not being magic at all. But she still didn’t understand why her friend would turn her small music ear thing into a straight up torture device. “Why would you turn the music up so loud that it hurts?”

Luz had not been expecting that question. 

She froze for a second, and when she did say something, she said it quietly and in a weirdly uncharacteristic monotone voice.

“Loud music drowns out the noise in my head when I’m down.”

Amity rarely ever saw her little ball of light be... anything but that, and despite not knowing what it was that made Luz feel sad, it tugged at Amity’s heartstrings. The green-haired witch put a comforting hand around her friend’s shoulder.

“...do you wanna talk about it?”

Luz shook her head.

“No. Not right now.” The smile she gave Amity now was weak, but at least it seemed genuine again. “But... thank you.”

Amity smiled at Luz and rubbed her shoulder.

“Anytime.”

She would have taken on the world with Luz if it had made her feel at least a little better. 

Luz was the most amazing person Amity had ever met. She of all people deserved to be happy.

Luz leaned into Amity’s embrace and let her head sink onto her friend’s shoulder, pushing the upsetting thoughts that explanation had caused to the back of her head as she leaned against Amity, taking in her nice, flowery scent. It relaxed her and made her feel warm inside.

The two witches sat there like that, unmoving, just listening to the soft, not deafening music for what felt like the world‘s most wonderful eternity.

After Amity had overcome the first—and second, and third—shock about the fact that Luz was so close to her, the blush slowly vanished from her face, and she was able to breathe properly and just be... comfortable and happy. And it felt great. Holding Luz like that was quite possibly the most amazing feeling imaginable.

Luz’s gentle hugs and soft touches were something that Amity still wasn’t entirely used to. 

Physical comfort had never been a huge thing between her and her parents. ...actually, any kind of comfort hadn’t really been her parents’ style. 

Blights needed to be the best. If they fell, they got up again, steadied themselves and sucked it up. No crying. Not showing any weakness. Ever.

There was this one event that had been burned into her memory especially well.  
Amity had fallen off of the slide in their backyard when she was about five. She remembered being in pain, her head spinning and the twins’ blurry faces, and how they’d tried to comfort her and tell her that she’d be okay... and then their mother had come outside and scolded the twins for attempting to calm their younger sibling down.

_ “Shoo, you two. Your sister doesn’t need your pity. She’ll take this opportunity to learn that her actions have consequences and that she needs to be more careful in the future. Right, Amity? Now come on, I will take you to a healer. You’ll know better next time.” _

Amity still shuddered at the memory. 

_ ‘What a nice thing to say to a little kid with a bad concussion and a broken arm.’ _

But Luz was... so different from the people Amity had grown up with. Never too shy to show her she cared.

She’d held Amity’s hand in the healer’s office after she’d broken her leg and stayed with Amity as long as she was allowed to just to distract her. 

Every minute she spent with Luz, Amity felt herself falling harder for her friend. And sitting next to her like that... maybe she’d find the courage to actually tell her.

She closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. Then her hand found Luz’s and she squeezed it slightly.

“Hey Luz?”

“Hm?” The human witch lifted her head for what might have been the first time in at least half an hour to look at Amity. “Everything okay?”

Amity smiled at her shyly.

“Perfect. More than perfect. There’s just... something I need to talk to you abou-”

The green-haired witch was interrupted by the door swinging open.

Camila was standing in the doorframe, looking at the two of them apologetically, holding some bedding and a bunch of pillows in her arms.

“Sorry about the interruption, you two. I just thought Amity would need something to sleep in.”

Amity recoiled, let go of her friend’s hand and moved a bit away from Luz, her face turning beet-red.

“Hi Ms. Noceda!”

She grinned awkwardly and waved a bit.

Camila raised an eyebrow at her daughter’s friend in amusement, but remained silent.

Luz, who had somehow managed to miss all of this, got up immediately and took the bedding from her mother. She was in a really good mood after all the cuddling.

”Oh, right, almost forgot! Thanks mom.” 

Seeing Luz so happy made her mother smile.

“Of course. Do you two need anything else?” Camila glanced at Amity. “Is she okay? Is there a reason she’s still wearing the beanie?”

“She’s just a bit cold, I think.” Another white lie. That was okay, right? “I’m going to turn up the heating a bit.”

“Good call.” The knowing smile her mom gave Luz confused her, a lot, but she just shrugged it off when Camila continued. “Don’t stay up too long, yeah?”

“Lo prometo, mami. Actually...” She turned to Amity. “What do you say we get ready for bed? We don’t actually have to sleep yet, but it can’t hurt to change and brush our teeth already, right?”

Amity nodded.

“That’s probably a good idea.”

The only one that actually ended up changing right away was Luz. They picked out some pajamas for Amity, but decided that she should probably brush her teeth before she changed, because walking around the house meant that Camila could see them, and Amity couldn’t exactly keep wearing the beanie when she was in her pajamas—at least not without Camila becoming at least a little suspicious.

After they’d stepped into the bathroom, Luz took about ten minutes to turn it upside down for a toothbrush Amity could use.

“We should have some spare ones around here somewhere...”

The human girl rummaged through the small cupboard until she found what she was looking for – an opened package with two out of three toothbrushes still left inside.

“Here you go, just pick one of these.” She handed Amity the package while the human girl picked up her own electric toothbrush from its stand and put toothpaste on it. “This will taste very weird compared to the stuff you guys have on the Boiling Isles, but I promise, it works all the same.”

Amity was just about to take a toothbrush out of the package when a weird, threatening noise from next to her made her turn around.

“Luz! No!” Amity watched with pure horror in her eyes as Luz lifted her toothbrush to her mouth. The green-haired witch immediately dropped everything she was holding, and was barely able to knock the toothbrush out of Luz’s hand before the human girl actually put it inside her mouth. It landed on the floor with a clattering noise. “Good! Now stay away from her!”

“...huh?”

Luz was too perplex to actually say anything. She just stared at her empty hand for a few seconds, which was still raised halfway to her mouth.

Amity placed herself protectively in between Luz and the toothbrush.

“Careful, Luz. No sudden movements or it will attack.”

Amity sounded dead serious and extremely worried.

Luz, who had finally managed to overcome her surprise, raised an eyebrow. She was a bit amused by what was happening, but she was also extremely confused. 

“Uh... Amity, this is really sweet, but why exactly are you protecting me from my own toothbrush?”

Amity looked at the toothbrush on the floor, then at her friend, and then back at the toothbrush. How could Luz not see this?

“It’s clearly possessed! Look at it! It’s vibrating!” Had Amity been too slow? Had the toothbrush already bewitched her friend? _‘Oh no...’_

Luz couldn’t help but laugh.

“Of course it’s vibrating, that’s the whole point. It’s an electric toothbrush.”

She somehow kept forgetting that there were a bunch of things in the human realm that Amity didn’t know and couldn’t understand which lead to her coming to  very wrong conclusions.

“This isn’t funny, Luz.” Amity was freaking out. The toothbrush was still vibrating on the floor and showed no sign of surrender. “Toothbrush demons are dangerous.”

“Toothbrush  _ what?” _

King had told Luz about all kinds of demons during her time on the Boiling Isles, but she couldn’t remember anything about toothbrushes ever being mentioned. And that didn’t sound like the kind of thing she’d forget.

Amity didn’t reply-instead, she started growling at the toothbrush.

“Stay away from Luz, you hear me?! I won’t let you hurt her!”

“Thank god mom’s watching the news downstairs, that would have been hard to explain...” Luz mumbled, extremely amused and also kind of touched.

There they were, in the middle of the bathroom, Amity standing protectively in front of Luz as she yelled at her toothbrush, and Luz couldn’t help but think this was the most adorable thing she’d ever seen. She felt weirdly happy about Amity trying to protect her, despite the fact that said protection was completely unnecessary in this specific situation. It was very cute.

Amity was about to cast a spell on the toothbrush, then thankfully thought better of it—Camila would not have been thrilled about a giant hole in the floor—and just kicked the toothbrush against the bathroom wall. It didn’t put up as much of a fight as she’d expected it to, but she figured it was just trying to hide its true power to trick them and kicked it against the wall a second time, then a third, then a fourth.

“Die, toothbrush demon! Die!” Eventually, she hit the on/off button with her foot by pure coincidence. “Good! And stay dead!”

Luz was still chuckling a bit.

“Amity-”

But Amity wasn’t listening. She stepped closer to Luz and cupped her face in her hands, examining it.

“Are you all right? Did the demon hurt you?”

She wasn’t able to find any injury at the first and second glance, which was a relief, but she was still waiting for Luz’s reply—maybe she’d sustained an injury that Amity just couldn’t see.

While Amity herself was so occupied with worrying about Luz that she’d failed to notice it so far, Luz had no trouble noticing how close their faces were to each other.

Amity’s nose was barely an inch away from touching Luz’s own, and Luz felt her heart flutter in her chest at the way her friend gently touched her face.

The closer Amity got to Luz in order to examine her face, the redder Luz went. She managed to stay cool around Amity most of the time... but right now, her usual calm had gone out the window.

For a few seconds, all Luz could think about was leaning forward and kissing the girl that she’d just seen shout at a toothbrush a moment ago.

But she couldn’t just do that, could she?

“Never better.”

It might have been Luz’s breath on Amity’s cheek or the fact that her voice seemed a bit louder than usual, Amity couldn’t tell, exactly, but whatever the reason was, the green-haired witch had been snapped out of her worry-trance and had finally realized how close her face was to Luz’s.

Amity’s face turned even redder than that of her crush currently was—which was really saying something—and she was so startled that she stumbled backwards and almost fell over. 

The only reason that she didn’t was that she managed to hold onto the sink just barely.

“I’m sorry, I got carried away and-”

Luz reached for her hand.

“Careful there, please try not to hurt yourself, okay?” Amity intertwined her fingers with Luz’s as her friend helped her steady herself some more. “You’re a but klutzy today, huh? Are you okay? This is already the third time you almost got hurt...”

Amity sighed.

“I... don’t know. I’m a bit out of it. I guess we’ve both just had a really long day.”

“You can say that again.” Luz handed her friend one of the spare toothbrushes from the package Amity had dropped into the sink. “This one doesn’t vibrate, I promise.”

She then put her own electric toothbrush back onto the shelf and switched to the third one from the package. 

There was no need to freak Amity out even more today.

They brushed their teeth next to each other silently, both still with a slight blush on their face, neither of them speaking until eventually, Luz put hers down and cleaned it.

“Okay, that should be enough. Let’s go back to my room so you can change.”

She turned to leave the room.

Amity glared at the toothbrush one more time.

“I’ve got an eye on you.” As fate would have it, Luz hadn’t placed the toothbrush on the shelf very steadily earlier, which resulted in the damn thing falling down as Luz exited the room. Amity yelped and ran after her friend, suddenly not quite as courageous anymore. “Wait up!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope you enjoyed this chapter, feedback is extremely appreciated!
> 
> And I know I’m repeating myself, but once again, a huge, HUGE freaking thank you for everyone that commented on the last chapter. All of your comments are so nice and motivating and I enjoy reading every single one of them. All of you are amazing. Thank you.  
> And also, the amount of attention this story has been getting in general is just absolutely insane. There’s art for it, for crying out loud! For my fic! How did that even happen?! God, you guys are amazing.  
> Here, if you wanna check it out:  
> https://instagram.com/p/CEHWWjYpm92/  
> https://www.instagram.com/p/CEAypYvA6G1/?igshid=hudsxum28l9p
> 
> See you guys next week with more Lumity-content that was actually supposed to be in this chapter, but if it had been, the chapter would have been insanely long and also even later than it already is xD


	5. There Was Only One Bed (So We Had A Sleepover)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again the chapter is a bit late, mainly due to the same issue that I also had last time – I started writing, and then I kept writing and kept writing and kept writing and it just wouldn’t end XD  
> I hope the extra length makes up for this being a bit late, it’s even longer than the last one somehow xD
> 
> Enjoy the dumb joke that is this chapter’s title because it’s a fanfic chapter that includes a popular fanfic trope and also features Luz and Amity reading a fanfic xD 
> 
> Disclaimer, since that was criticized in one of my other fics: I try to do proper research when writing about medical topics, but I’m not an expert. If you have a burn injury on your back, especially a severe one, please go see a doctor. Also, just in general, don’t take medical advice from fanfics about Disney cartoons.

Amity and Luz were back to sitting on Luz’s bed now.

The human girl was glancing at Willow’s plant absentmindedly, which was sitting directly on the window sill beside them, and that she hadn’t even forgotten to water—she was immensely proud of herself for that— already missing her friends on the Boiling Isles and wondering what they were up to right now.

Amity on the other hand had immediately started changing the second they’d gotten back into the bedroom. She couldn’t wait to get into some comfier clothes, and since the door of the room was closed, maybe she could even risk taking the beanie off. She liked how it looked, and she liked even more how it made Luz smile at her, but she was also getting really hot underneath, especially since Luz had turned up the heating in her room.

Amity changed into the pajama bottoms and folded her own pants neatly and then laid them down beside the bed.

“Here, let me just...” She tapped Luz’s shoulder to get her to turn around to hand Luz back the shirt she had lent Amity. Luz did turn around—but then she froze and her eyes went wide, not even noticing that Amity was trying to give her something. “Uh, Luz...?” 

Then Amity realized what her crush was staring at, and it hit the green-haired witch that she’d forgotten about the injury on her back that she hadn’t bothered telling Luz about before. 

_ ‘Oops.’ _

Luz was frozen in shock for a few seconds before she managed to speak again.

“Amity, you... your back...” This looked bad. This looked really, really,  _really painful. ‘Why didn’t you say anything?’_

“Oh. Right. That. I’d forgotten about that already because it barely hurts!”

Amity immediately put on the pajama top that Luz had lent her, but it was too late now. She’d already seen the injury.

When Amity looked up again, Luz’s face had lost all of its color.

“It... it doesn’t hurt?” Luz gulped. She felt sick. This was bad. This was  _terrible._ “We have to take you to the hospital, immediately.”

“I-” Amity cocked her head in confusion. “We have to  _what?”_ Why was Luz freaking out so much? She’d just said she  wasn’t hurting. That didn’t make any sense. And what even  _was_ a hospital? “What I said was meant to calm you down. Why isn’t it calming you down?”

Luz looked at Amity, her eyes filled with a combination of worry and absolute terror.

“If you’re not feeling pain that means the burn is so bad your nerve ends are damaged.”

The thought alone had the human girl shaking.

“...oops. I didn’t know that.” Amity smiled at Luz sheepishly and sighed. There was no use hiding it now, except if she wanted her friend to freak out even more. “Actually, it does hurt. A lot. I just... I didn’t want you to be worried. I shouldn’t even be here in the first place!” Everything was really starting to hit Amity now. She lowered her head and broke down sobbing. “I made everything so much more complicated! I got in the way of your alone time with your mom and intruded on your reunion after you hadn’t seen each other in so long and then I ate half of your dinner and- I’m so sorry, Luz... I’m so sorry I messed everything up by coming after you.”

“Amity...” Luz lifted her friend’s face with her hands and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Please don’t cry, okay? None of that is true, please don’t say stuff like that.” She hugged her friend carefully, making sure to embrace her shoulders rather than her back in order not to hurt her. “You didn’t mess anything up. I’m actually... really happy I got to spend a bit more time with you. I’ll have the next several months to spend time with my mom, and the thought of being separated from you terrified me... so that we have a bit more time to make some memories before we have to say goodbye for real makes me happy. I was... really worried about you today because you almost got hurt so many times, and now that I know you  _are_ hurt, I’m even more worried—but today has also been insanely fun, and I’m extremely happy that it happened. That I got to show you my home, and share my favorite food with you, and that you met my mom... and, I’m sorry, but you fighting my toothbrush earlier was the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen.”

Amity shook her head. How her friend couldn’t take something as dangerous as a toothbrush demon seriously was beyond her... but at least thinking about that helped Amity not focus on being upset for a moment. She just leaned into the embrace silently until she’d calmed down a bit.

“I still think that thing was possessed,” she mumbled.

Luz chuckled.

“I’ll show you how it works tomorrow, I promise.”

“...okay, now I’m terrified.” Amity cracked a small smile. “I’m... sorry about whatever that just was. My emotions are a bit all over the place at the moment.”

Luz smiled softly at her friend and hugged Amity one more time before she let go of her to look her in the eyes.

“As someone whose emotions are  _always_ all over the place and who’s not ashamed of that... it’s fine. Really. And today has been a lot for both of us, so it’s not really that surprising. Can you...” she started reluctantly, “can you show me the injury again?”

Amity sighed, then nodded as she slowly pulled the shirt over her head to take it off and turned her back towards Luz.

Luz loudly sucked air in.

“Does it look as bad as it feels?” Amity asked quietly and bit her lip.

“You know, I’m really glad you lied about not being in pain. That would have been  _way_ scarier.” Luz gulped. Saying that hadn’t calmed her down even in the slightest. Her hands were trembling. “But it does look bad, yeah. You should probably show that to my mom...”

Amity looked over her shoulder and blinked at her friend in confusion.

“Why?”

“My mom’s a nurse.” Luz would have chuckled a bit at her friend’s confused expression if she hadn’t been as worried as she was. “It’s... our equivalent of a healer, but without the magic aspect.”

“Ooooh. Now I get it. ...but I really shouldn’t show it to her.“

“Amity...”

“No. We can’t do that.” The green-haired witch shook her head. Luz was about to protest when Amity started speaking again. “Luz, how exactly would you explain this to her if we showed her? I don’t know much about camp, but I’m assuming human kids usually don’t come back from it with huge burn injuries across their backs.”

“Maybe not, but...” Luz bit her lip. “Amity, this looks bad. Really, really,  _really bad._ If we don’t take care of this properly, the injury could get infected,  _and that’s the best case scenario.”_

She didn’t even want to think about all the other things that could go wrong if this wasn’t treated.

Amity sighed.

“...let me put this differently. If your mom sees this, she’ll probably take me to one of those...  _hospitals,_ was it?” From the context she was given, Amity assumed that the word was probably referring to some kind of medical institution. Luz nodded. “And I’m likely going to be thoroughly examined there, right?”

The human girl realized where Amity was going with this and gulped.

“If they realize you’re not human...” Luz shuddered as she tried her hardest not to imagine what could happen in that case, and failed, miserably. Being dissected like Luz almost had been on her first day at Hexside was one among many equally terrifying possibilities. Amity was right. They couldn’t risk that. And that meant there was no way they could show the injury to Camila and ask her for help – Luz knew her mom well enough to know that, one, she’d ask a ton of questions that they wouldn’t be able to answer if she saw the injury, and two, she’d definitely want to take Amity to the hospital just to be safe, even in the unlikely case that the injury wasn’t quite as bad as it looked. Luz hanged her head in resignation. “...I hate that you’re right.“

“Luz, it’s okay. Really. I’m going to be back home tomorrow, and then I’ll go see a healer and have this taken care of. It’s probably going to be a few days of taking it easy for me, but I’m going to be fine.”

Amity wasn’t thrilled at the prospect of having to spend yet another week on bed rest... but she’d manage.

“But you’re not fine right now!” Luz protested immediately. “We have to do something.” She got up from the mattress. “I’ll go get my glyphs, and-”

Amity grabbed her friend’s arm and shook her head vigorously.

“You can’t do that! If your mom saw the injury, that would be one thing, but if she caught you doing  _that...”_ Amity trailed off, but she didn’t need to finish the sentence for Luz to understand what she meant.

They’d have enough to explain if Camila walked in and saw the injury. The last thing they needed was for her to find out about Luz’s ability to do magic on her first day back here.

Luz sank back onto the mattress in resignation. 

She knew that Amity was right, and it hurt her, because that also meant that she wouldn’t be able to help her friend as much as she could and should have.

“A- at least let me patch you up, okay?” 

The human girl was on the verge of tears.

“Luz, it’s fine, I mean it.” 

Amity tried to put a reassuring hand on her friend’s shoulder, but Luz turned away immediately. She wasn’t even able to look Amity in the eyes right now.

“It’s not fine! It’s anything but fine! This is already the second time you got hurt because of me!”

“Luz-”

_This wasn’t her fault, damn it._ Amity had made that choice to run after her, and neither of them could have predicted the portal going up in flames the way it did. 

And the stupid Grudgby-injury hadn’t been Luz’s fault either.

“No!” The human girl started sobbing. “I- I can’t believe you got burnt this badly for a stupid hair clip.”

Amity wanted to scream that  _this had never been about the damn hair clip to begin with,_ but she couldn’t bring herself to do it, so she just pulled Luz close again.

“It wasn’t your fault.”

“I should have protected you better...”

Amity pulled her shaking friend into another hug, and Luz just snuggled against her for a moment to calm herself down.

“You couldn’t have known. We were both too surprised to act. It wasn’t your fault,” Amity repeated. Her voice was soothing and sweet, and it reached Luz and made her feel a bit better. “And yeah, you can patch me up, as long as it’s in a non-magic way.”

Luz sat up immediately. She’d be able to do something to help. That was good.

“Okay. We should have a first-aid-kit in the bathroom somewhere, I’ll go get it. Be right back.”

  
  


“Agh!” 

Amity had a hard time clenching her fists into the pillow Luz had handed her instead of screaming, but she was trying her best. The last thing they needed right now was for Camila to come running and see this.

Titan, this hurt  _so much._ But Luz was right. She had to clean the wound before this got any worse.

“I’m sorry!” Luz was struggling to continue. Her hands were shaking a bit, and she couldn’t help but feel like she was  _hurting_ Amity, despite knowing deep down that this was what needed to be done to help her. “I’m almost done, I promise.”

“I- it’s not your fault. I’m... sorry for being such an idiot. I should have just told you right away instead of-“

Amity clenched her fists so tightly into the pillow that the fabric ripped a bit and still let out a small yelp.

“I’m so sorry...”

“Luz...” There were tears running down Amity’s cheeks, but she was trying her best to force a smile. “Please stop apologizing for taking care of me. You’re doing your best.”

The human girl sighed.

“I... you’re right, I just... I can’t help but feel like this is all my fault. And seeing you hurt like this- I- I don’t know how to take it.”

Seeing Amity in pain just about killed Luz. This was too much. 

Her friend reached out and squeezed her hands.

“It’s not your fault, Luz.” Amity would keep telling Luz that as many times as she needed to hear it until she finally believed it. “I’m going to be okay. I promise.” There was something about Amity touching her hands like this that made Luz’s heart stop for a few seconds, then flutter right out of her chest. There was something about Amity in general that made Luz feel like she could do just about anything every time her friend smiled at her. “I’ll get a healer to look at this the second I get home, alright? But I trust you, and I know that even if I didn’t get to see a healer anytime soon, you taking care of me would be all I need to get better.”

“That’s sweet, but you should really get a professional to look at this.” Luz reluctantly let go of Amity’s hands and reached for the washcloth again. “Just hang on a bit longer, I’m almost done, and all that’s left to do afterwards is bandage you up, okay?”

“...okay.”

The next few minutes passed by in a blur for Amity. She did her best to ignore the pain and just focus on the fact that Luz was close to her and taking care of her because that thought made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside in the best possible way and helped her get through just about everything.

While cleaning the wound hurt, Luz wrapping the bandages loosely around Amity’s lower back afterwards actually felt kind of nice. The bandages felt soft against her skin, and Luz’s touch was so incredibly careful and gentle each time, it almost felt magic, even without the use of any actual magic.

And the painkillers Luz had given Amity also helped her feel better, a lot.

“There we go. All finished.” Luz smiled at Amity. “You can get dressed again.”

Amity let out a breath of relief.

“This feels so much better. Luz, you’re amazing at this...” She was completely enchanted by her crush—well, even more than usually—and for a few moments, she didn’t even move because she was too busy staring at Luz in amazement. “I had no idea you could do stuff like that.”

Luz smiled sheepishly.

“I guess I picked up a thing or two from my mom over the years.”

_...that, and she was also very dedicated to writing medically accurate sickfics. _

Amity put on the pajama top again, and  titan, it felt so good to finally be able to move again without her back feeling quite as on fire. Sure, it still hurt, and she still felt stiff, but it was nowhere as bad as it had been.

“Oh, and I almost forgot to ask, but... do you think I can take the beanie off now? I’m really starting to sweat, and since I usually sleep with my hair down, I think that would at least hide my ears a bit, I hope?”

Luz nodded.

“Yeah, I think that should be fine. My mom would start asking questions if she walked in and you were in pajamas but still wearing a-”

The rest of her sentence got stuck in her throat as her eyes went wide.

Amity had immediately removed the beanie in relief when Luz had allowed her to, and had then taken out her hair tie. She always felt a little awkward about letting her hair down after wearing parts of it up the entire day. Now, she was occupied with awkwardly trying to put it over her ears a little so that it hid the tips.

...and Luz was completely mesmerized. For a moment, her mind went completely blank, the only thing left in there being Amity with her hair down.

“Amity, te ves preciosa,” she mumbled without thinking.

_ “...what?” _

_ _

[Hoot.ty_](https://instagram.com/hoot.ty_?igshid=1j2bph9b7yera)  


Amity cocked her head. She had no clue what these words even meant, but there was something about the way Luz had said them that made her heart flutter in her chest.

Luz blushed like crazy when she realized what she’d just said.

Okay, no need to freak out. She’d  _just_ called Amity beautiful. Which she was. 

And Amity... hadn’t even understood it, because Luz’s brain had short-circuited at the view and she had said it in Spanish. 

The green-haired witch was still looking at her friend in confusion.

Luz cleared her throat, but when she looked back up at Amity, she immediately lost all her focus again.

“I just... I... wow. You... you look... wow.” Now she was stumbling over her own words. Again. Great. But gosh, she couldn’t help it. _Amity was so beautiful._ “I mean, it’s not like you don’t always look good, I just- your hair looks great that way. Amazing, even. I mean-”

Luz wasn’t sure why, but keeping her cool around Amity didn’t seem to be an option today.

...although honestly, the fact that she  _was_ usually able to do it was what should have been more surprising. Considering just how cool and amazing and gorgeous Amity was, that anyone who communicated with her didn’t immediately combust out of happiness seemed weird to Luz.

_ “Thank you!” _

Amity’s voice was all squeaky, she was screaming internally and had just decided that she was never ever going to tie her hair back again.

For a moment, both of them just sat there, blushed and awkward and neither of them really knowing what to say, until finally, Luz’s gaze, that was still awkwardly trying to avoid Amity’s, settled on her laptop.

She suddenly remembered something she’d wanted to do ever since they’d gotten there, that she’d then forgotten about over cuddling and toothbrush demons and Amity’s injury. 

Very thankful for the distraction from whatever the hell that had just been, she cleared her throat and started talking again.

“So... do you want to go to sleep, or...”

Amity‘s heart rate was finally starting to slow back down to a more normal rate as well, so that was something. She saw the glint in her friend’s eyes. She was curious now. Not sure if she would survive any more Luz today after she’d just called her beautiful, but also morbidly curious.

“What did you have in mind?”

Luz’s face lit up.

“Have you ever heard of fanfics before?”

_ “And once again, the dragon had been defeated and the magical world had been saved. The time had come for the heroes of the day to celebrate...” _

Luz switched from her dramatic narrator voice to Hecate’s as she got back into character – she would have loved to play Azura, but Amity deserved to be special today, and her green hair was too good of a resemblance to pass up on anyway, so that role went to Amity instead. 

_ “Good work today. You know, for the second most powerful witch in the realm.” _

And Amity was nailing her role.

_ Azura raised an eyebrow. _

_ “Bold words considering they’re coming from the person whose life I saved about ten minutes ago. Or have you forgotten about that already?” _

They’d been reading for more than two hours now, which had gone by like seconds thanks to how much fun they were having, and were slowly approaching the ending of the story.

_“You know me, Az.” Hecate winked at Azura,_ causing Amity to blush when Luz did the same.  _ “I always end up with sudden amnesia after we had a bonding moment.” _

_ Azura chuckled. _

_ “You’re insufferable.” _

_ Hecate just grinned. _

_ “I know. It’s one of my best qualities.” _

_ Azura shook her head as she moved closer to her friend, looking directly into Hecate’s eyes. _

_ “One of these days, I’m going to wipe that smug grin right off your face.” _

_ But her friend’s familiar smug grin just became even broader. _

_ “I wouldn’t bet on it if I was you.” _

_ And then, Hecate leaned forward and kissed Azura. _

Somehow, despite having years and probably thousands of chapters worth of experience,  and despite the fic being tagged as ship, Luz had not seen this coming.

And she was also so in-character that she actually leaned forward, and for a second, so did Amity, until their noses touched and the green-haired witch instinctively jumped about two feet backwards, her face bright red.

Luz blinked for a second, then almost threw her laptop off her bed accidentally because she was so startled.

“...oh god, I forgot this was a ship fic!” She blushed like crazy. “I didn’t mean to... I just got so into the acting and I... I don’t know what came over me. I’m so sorry, Amity.” Gosh, this was awkward. This was really,  _really awkward. ‘Someone please kill me.’_

With every passing second, Luz felt herself panicking more.

This was it. Amity was going to hate her forever and everything would be super weird between them. Of course Luz couldn’t have managed another  _day_ of not messing things up with Amity before they wouldn’t see each other again in months, with no way for Luz to explain herself or make it up to Amity.

 _“It’s fine!”_ Amity had that weirdly high-pitched voice from earlier again, and she was talking very fast. _ “I think maybe it’s time to go to sleep, I’m tired!”_

At this point, Amity was pretty sure she’d died, ascended to the stars and then been reanimated, just to immediately die again. There was no way she was going to be alive enough to get back home after all this.

_ ‘Luz just almost kissed me. Luz just almost kissed me. Luz just-’ _

“Okay. Let’s just... go to sleep.”

Luz felt numb as she turned away from Amity and hanged her head. Great. Of course she wanted to go to sleep and not talk to her anymore after that.

“Luz?” Amity got up carefully. Her happiness vanished instantly at the tone of Luz’s voice. It was unmistakable just how upset she was. “Hey, what’s...” Amity’s voice cracked when she saw how much Luz’s shoulders were shaking. “...wrong?”

“I’m sorry for being such a weirdo! I can’t believe I just did that! And now I messed everything up between us and-” Luz mumbled.

Amity didn’t let her finish. She ignored her racing heartbeat as she moved closer to Luz and gently hugged her from behind, placing her head on Luz’s shoulder.

“You didn’t mess anything up, Luz. It’s okay. Please don’t be upset.”

Luz gasped at the sudden gentle touch.

“But...”

“It’s fine, really. I wasn’t expecting it, but I actually think it’s adorable that you got  _this_ into the role. You have nothing to apologize for. Besides, I also leaned forward a bit, so it’s not like this was all just on you. And...” Amity took a deep breath and braced herself for whatever reaction she might get to what she was about to say next. “I wouldn’t mind you kissing me, you know.”

Luz blinked and blushed a bit.

“You mean that?”

Amity smiled at her friend as she hugged her a little tighter.

“I do. You’re amazing, Luz. I meant that earlier. Anyone would be lucky to have you as a girlfriend.”

“Amity, that’s sweet, but...” Luz trailed off.

Amity would have been crushed if not for the way Luz had just said that. It wasn’t the _‘I don’t like you back’_ -type of _‘but’—_ Luz had said it so absentmindedly that Amity was certain Luz hadn’t understood what she’d meant and that her mind was now elsewhere. The way she was staring off into space supported that thesis.

Whatever she was thinking of obviously made her upset again.

Amity sighed as she made peace with not being able to confess today and then let go of Luz to sit down next to her and reach for her hand.

“Hey, if you want to talk about the reason you’re upset, I’m here. You know that, right?”

Amity squeezed her friend’s hand.

Luz was really startled for a moment when Amity’s voice tore her from her thoughts, then she processed what her friend had just said and shook her head.

“Thanks, but... It’s nothing. I’m fine. Just sad that you’ll be leaving again so soon.”

The lie came over her lips effortlessly, but despite that, her friend didn’t believe her for a single second.

Amity hadn’t missed that there was something incredibly different about Luz in this realm. She couldn’t exactly explain what it was, but there was just something about Luz here that made Amity’s heart ache in her chest when she looked at her.

It was like the spark in her eyes had gone out.

But if she wasn’t ready to talk about it, Amity wouldn’t force her out of her comfort zone. She couldn’t exactly blame Luz, after all—there were plenty of things Amity herself still wasn’t ready to talk about. The only thing she could do was remind Luz that if she wanted it, Amity was there to offer her support, and even if she wasn’t ready to talk about what was going on, she’d have a shoulder to cry on regardless.

“Is there anything I can do to make you feel better?”

Luz sighed and shrugged.

“Can you just... distract me for a while?”

This was one of those occasions where she’d usually put on her headphones and turn the music up to full volume to drown out the mean voices in her head. Luz knew that being a weirdo wasn’t a bad thing—she liked herself for who she was and wasn’t ashamed of it—but that didn’t mean an entire classroom shouting it at her had felt good.

Except for her mom and her fanfics, she really hadn’t missed this place one bit.

Amity nodded.

“Of course. In that case... do you want to finish reading the fic? It’s just two more chapters, after all, and I’m honestly really curious what’s going to happen now.”

Luz blinked in surprise, then managed a small, sheepish smile.

“Actually, yeah, I do. No more almost kissing you by accident, I promise.”

Amity smiled back at her, still getting way too blushed and excited at the memory, as she placed the laptop between them again and clicked on the ‘next chapter’-button—the first kiss that they’d just stopped at had also been the mean cliffhanger ending the author of that story had chosen for this particular chapter.

“It’s okay, really. Now let’s just get back into character and finish this up before we go to sleep.”

In the meantime, night had fallen on the Boiling Isles. While most witches, monsters, demons and everything in  between were already asleep or at the very least home from work, Lilith Clawthorne was still busy reporting the events of the day to no other than the Emperor himself.

“Excellent work, Lilith.” The Emperor’s voice still gave the younger witch chills, despite having spent years serving in the Emperor’s Coven by now. And even when she only heard him through the crystal ball rather than being with him in person, like it was the case right now, his voice was no less intimidating. “I’m actually a bit impressed. After you continuously failed to capture the Owl Lady in the past, I was starting to think that maybe, you were becoming... soft. That you were protecting her because of your past.”

Lilith felt herself tense a little. Thankfully, the room was just dark enough and her clothes were just wide enough so that it wasn’t easily visible.

“I still have every intention to capture Edalyn. As long as you will fulfill the promise you made to me, she will become a useful ally.”

The second part of that was pretty much impossible now—Edalyn has been more than reluctant to join the Emperor’s Coven before today, and now that she knew the Emperor wanted her child dead, Lilith was pretty much certain that her sister would rather die herself than joining the Coven—but that didn’t mean Lilith could just give up.

“Oh, but of course. And you  _did_ prove me wrong today. To take something as important as the human from your sister... you couldn’t have done that if she was genuinely more important to you than our cause is.”

“Of course she’s not. The main reason I asked for your help in reversing the curse was because I believe my sister to be a powerful witch useful to our goals. Not because she’s my sister.” This wasn’t true at all, and Lilith wasn’t sure if Belos was aware of it or not—but if he was, he at least seemed to tolerate it, as long as it didn’t keep her from doing what was necessary. But she wasn’t sure how much longer she would be able to remain in control of her emotions after everything that had happened today. Lilith still hadn’t been able to shake what her sister had said.  _‘You crushed a young girl’s dream and talk about it like it’s something to be proud of. And you messed up Amity’s life in the process... the girl you were mentoring, the one that you were supposed to protect!’_

No matter how badly she tried to push them to the back of her mind... to forget about them... she couldn’t.

She’d never meant for Amity to get caught in the crossfire... and there was also this nagging voice at the back of her head that forced her to question everything else about her decision.”

“Is something bothering you, Lilith?” The menacing voice of the Emperor silenced her thoughts in an instance. “You’re not having second thoughts about the fate of the human, are you?”

“Of course not.” Lilith sighed. “But something unfortunate happened when I destroyed the portal that was outside of my control.”

“Oh?”

“The Blight girl I’ve been mentoring has... befriended the human over the summer. This in itself would not have been an issue, but she happened to follow her friend into the other realm, which I wasn’t aware of when I destroyed the portal. Now she’s stuck on the other side.”

“Ah. I understand what you’re asking of me.” His glowing eyes glared at her menacingly. “Not to worry, Lilith Clawthorne. I will be sure to inform her parents of this... unfortunate development personally. The Blights have proven time and again that they are among our most trustworthy allies. It’s a shame that their youngest daughter has gone astray... but I’m sure they’ll know which side they’re on despite that.”

Lilith felt her heart drop to her stomach.

“But... Amity’s just a child.”

The protest felt weak, even to her, and it didn’t do any good.

“Precisely. A regrettable waste of a talented young witch... but like you said, she’s still young, so that there’s not too many years of training that have gone to waste on a traitor. You understand why we can’t risk opening another portal to retrieve her,  **_don’t you, Lilith?”_**

So he  _had_ understood what she was really asking. He was just ignoring it to make a point.

“I-”

He didn’t even wait for her answer as he continued.

“The commotion the young human witch has caused during her few months here is worrisome. She’s persuasive, and has already managed to lead a couple of powerful young witches astray in her short time here, who we can only hope will be returned to the right path with the proper guidance now that the human is gone. Imagine how much more harm she would cause if she were to ever return here...”

“I understand that, but-”

Once again, Belos didn’t let her finish. His glowing eyes glared at her through the glass, his voice becoming more and more threatening with every word.

“Good. You proved your loyalty to me today. Don’t prove me wrong again so soon. **I’d hate to be forced to take care of you myself.”** His tone was ice and fire at the same time, and Lilith felt chills running down her spine. 

She of all people knew Belos did to traitors the same thing he did to covenless witches. Getting on his bad side was a death sentence... if you were lucky enough.

“I understand. You’ll forgive me for worrying about the young witch, won’t you? We’ve heard terrible stories about the human realm since we were kids.” She lowered her head in a gesture of complete obedience when once again, Edalyn’s voice popped up in her head.  _ ‘You’re a coward, Lily.’_

And she knew that her little sister was right.  _She really was a coward._

“Oh, but of course. Who would I be to lecture a teacher for caring about her protégée?” Belos’ cold, menacing laugh made Lilith tense up even more. “But not to worry, you’ll forget about her soon enough. I’ll be sure to assign you a new promising student as fast as possible, of course. No use in wasting your potential as a teacher because of this little setback.” He paused to think for a moment, and despite not being able to see his face, Lilith was certain an evil smile crept across his face when he spoke again. “Perhaps one of the Blight twins would be fitting? They’re older, so they will be a bit harder to tame, but I don’t doubt you will be up for the task. And I’m certain their parents would be thrilled.”

His soulless, glowing eyes were still staring holes into her body. 

Lilith gulped.

“...of course, Emperor Belos.”

He sounded satisfied when he continued.

“Very well. I knew I was right to trust you with this task. Rest now, Lilith. You’ve earned it. I will make sure everything else is taken care of.”

Then the light of the crystal ball died out and the darkness surrounding her engulfed Lilith, regret eating away at her as she sunk back into her chair.

_ “What have I done?” _

After another half an hour, Amity and Luz had finished up reading the fanfic. The atmosphere was way more relaxed than it had been.

Amity was just proud that she’d made it through the last two chapters without dying, despite the fact that they’d exchanged wedding vows  _and_ adopted a child after a time skip at the end. Most importantly though, Luz was happy again.

“This was so much fun! I’ve never had anyone to read fics with before, and the story was great, and you’re really incredible at doing voices. Thank you for this.”

Amity beamed.

“Anytime.” She yawned. “Huh, maybe it’s actually time for us to head to bed now.”

Luz nodded.

“Okay.” She took the mattress out of her bag and placed it on the floor next to the bed, putting two pillows and a blanket on it. “I’ll sleep on the mattress. You take the bed.”

“But-”

Amity didn’t even have the chance to protest.

“No. You’re the guest. You’re not sleeping on the floor.” 

And even if it hadn’t been for that, Amity’s back injury was enough of a reason to not let her sleep anywhere but on the bed. 

“Luz, I’m not hogging  _your_ bed.”

“Yes, you are. And it’s not hogging if I ask you to do it.”

Amity crossed her arms.

“No. I already stole half your food. I’m not hogging your bed as well.”

“Lemon Drop, not this again...” The look on Amity’s face was enough to make Luz certain that her friend wasn’t going to budge on this, no matter how many cute nicknames she was showered in, and Luz sighed in resignation. “You know what? Fine. We’ll share, then, because I’m also not budging. And since you won’t let me sleep on the floor, despite the fact that I’ve been sleeping on that mattress all summer so it wouldn’t be a big deal... I guess you’ll have to be the big spoon, huh?”

Luz winked at her. 

Amity just looked at her friend in confusion, then looked at her own body, and then back at Luz.

“I’m... not a spoon.”

The thought of Luz wanting to share the bed with her had been exciting at first, but now she was just confused.

The human girl chuckled.

“...oh right, you guys have different expressions. Three months on the Boiling Isles, and I somehow still keep forgetting that.” She looked at Amity and smiled. “The words ‘big spoon’ and ‘little spoon’ are cuddling positions in bed. The big spoon hugs the little spoon all night. Like... if I lie down like this,” She laid down on the bed demonstratively, “with my back towards you, and then you hold me from behind and cuddle with me all night, you’re the big spoon and I’m the little spoon. It’s easier to sleep like that with a bed as small as mine.”

Luz was also  _maybe, possibly_ just looking for an excuse to cuddle with Amity some more. If Amity had to leave again tomorrow, they really needed to make the most of the time they had.

“Oh.” Amity felt her cheeks heat up again as her heart fluttered in her chest. Was she dreaming? Luz really wanted Amity to hold her all night? “Okay, then maybe I wanna be a spoon. But why am I the big one?”

Not that she was really complaining—cuddling with Luz at all was more than she would ever ask for, and that her friend wanted that made Amity behind happy. She was just curious if there was any specific way the big spoon and little spoon were chosen.

“Your injury. I don’t want to cuddle against your back if it means I’ll end up accidentally hurting you.”

“I... oh.” Amity rubbed the back of her neck. “Right.”

So no specific process to assign the big and little spoon. Just Luz being sweet and thoughtful again.

How was it possible that everything she said and did made Amity’s heart flutter as much as it did?

“You can lie down already if you want to, okay? I’ll go turn off the lights.”

A few moments later, the room was dark, Amity was holding Luz in her arms and all was right in the world.

“Is that okay? Are you comfortable?” Luz asked softly as she pulled the blanket over both of them.

“Mhm...” Amity cuddled up to her crush a bit more and closed her eyes. “I’m a happy spoon. The happiest spoon in the entire world.”

And she really was. Nothing she’d ever felt compared to the feeling of holding Luz in her arms as Amity fell asleep, and she knew right then and there that if she could keep doing that for the rest of her life, she’d be happy.

“Hey, I just wanted to wish you girls... goodnight?” 

Camila poked her head through the door about half an hour later, and was very surprised that the lights in her daughter’s room were out and that Luz and her friend were already in bed. 

She hadn’t expected them to be asleep this early. Luz tended to stay up way past midnight—especially on weekends—scrolling through her phone under the blanket, fully convinced that that fooled her mother into thinking she was asleep, to then get a text telling her to please go to sleep after her mom had checked in on her before either heading to work or going to bed herself.

Camila had kind of expected that this would be worse—and certainly not better—since Luz had a friend over... yet, here they were, 11:23 pm, and she was sound asleep in her friend’s arms.

“Buenas noches a ustedes dos.” They looked so comfortable, and Camila couldn’t help but smile. “Dulces sueños.”

Amity was a really sweet kid. A bit too clumsy for her own good, maybe. She was very like Luz in that regard, the adult mused.

The two teens looked like they’d had a long day—and from what they’d told Camila about Amity’s luggage being stolen, they really had—so they more than deserved a good night’s sleep.

This was the first time Camila saw Amity without the beanie, since the girl of course didn’t sleep in it. 

_ ‘Ah, so her natural hair color is brown.’ _

She’d been wondering about that.

...and then the adult saw Amity’s left ear that was poking out from beneath the dyed green hair.

Camila rubbed her eyes. She could have sworn the girl’s ear looked unnaturally pointy—almost like she’d fallen asleep in one of those makeshift elf cosplays that Luz sometimes showed her mother pictures of.

What she saw hadn’t changed when Camila opened her eyes again.

“Huh...” She shook her head and sighed. “I should probably get some sleep now, I can’t go to work tomorrow if I’m so tired I’m hallucinating...”

[Jelliebeandraws](https://instagram.com/jelliebeandraws?igshid=1go2xp2gexwbc)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Art credit to Hoot.ty on Instagram, used with permission! 
> 
> I hope you liked this chapter, feedback is extremely appreciated as always!  
> No, I will not apologize for heartbreak, the first non-character-tag is hurt/comfort and not fluff for a reason 😂  
> I have no idea how this chapter ended up being SO LONG, but I hope you enjoyed it anyway xD  
> Also: WE’RE ALMOST AT 2K KUDOS, EXCUSE ME WHILE I SCREAM! AAAAAAAH! THANKYOUTHANKYOUTHANKYOU I HAVE NO IDEA HOW I DESERVE THAT BUT THANK YOU!  
> Also thank you for all the nice comments on the last chapter, you guys are way too sweet! I laughed a lot at everyone screaming about the toothbrush, I’m really happy you enjoyed that scene, it was one of my favorites to write so far xD  
> I can’t answer everyone, sometimes simply because I don’t know how to reply, but I do read every single comment (often multiple times), and every single one makes me insanely happy and I’m incredibly thankful for everyone that takes the time to write me a comment, no matter how short ^^  
> All of you are amazing and this plays a huge part in motivating me to continue, so thank you all so much!
> 
> I think what Luz says to Amity in Spanish is pretty self-explanatory, but since what Camilia says isn’t quite as clear, it translates to “Good night, you two. Sweet dreams.”
> 
> See you guys next Saturday with a new chapter! (Hopefully actually Saturday this time 😅😉)
> 
> More art of Amity in a beanie for you to enjoy:  
> https://cala--mar.tumblr.com/post/628700812645941248/the-lone-witch-and-secret-room-hey-look-amity
> 
> Also, while you wait for the next chapter, check out this cute little Lumity writing piece that I commissioned from a friend of mine: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26385712


	6. Facade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A quick little note before we start this chapter – since I started writing this story before the last two episodes of the first season aired, I already had a some things planned that don’t fit the canon of the show 100% anymore (aside from just generally not including these specific episodes in the story’s timeline).  
> The only really major thing about it is the way magic works in the human realm – which you’ll see a bit of in this chapter, and which I will get into more in the future.  
> Since it’s kind of plot-relevant for Luz to still be able to use her glyphs, I’ve decided to stick with that, despite being aware that it contradicts the show. I hope nobody’s bothered by that too much!  
> As for Amity... you’ll have to wait and see ;)

  
Luz was awake at seven the next morning.

Amity... wasn’t.

Luz stayed in bed for an additional half an hour, just snuggling into Amity’s arms as she enjoyed the feeling of warmth that spread throughout her body because of it, but eventually, she couldn’t help getting up. 

Luz wasn’t used to sleeping in—she’d never been able to do that very well, not even during the weekend. Her sleep-wake rhythm was so used to getting up for school that it couldn’t fathom when she didn’t have to, causing her to still wake up pretty early even if there was no reason for her to get up already. 

In addition to that, once Luz was awake, she was usually wide awake, so there was no use in trying to fall asleep again afterwards.

...Eda had not appreciated her student already being an enthusiastic bundle of energy at eight every morning.

Luz bit her lip. 

It had barely been a full day, and she already longed to be back on the Boiling Isles.

She felt even less at peace in the realm she’d been born in now than she had felt before she’d walked through the portal for the first time. 

She was already homesick, in the place that was supposed to be her home.

Luz shook her head as she carefully lifted Amity’s arm off of herself to climb out of bed. She needed to find a way to distract herself somehow. 

Amity gave an unhappy grunt when Luz moved out of her arms and got up, but she didn’t wake up from it.

It was ten before Luz had the heart to wake her friend. She sat down next to her and gently started shaking her until Amity opened her eyes slightly.

“Morning, sleepyhead.”

Amity groaned, not even looking at Luz for a single second before she closed her eyes again.

“Mgh, five more minutes, Em,“ she mumbled drowsily and pulled the blanket over her head.

Luz chuckled. 

This was adorable.

“And here I was, thinking you were a morning person.”

As long as she’d known her, Amity had never been late for anything,  ever. That she of all people would sleep in was a real surprise to Luz.

Amity groaned even louder, tempted to throw a pillow in the vague direction of the person responsible for waking her, still not awake enough to recognize the voice.

“It’s the weekend. I don’t need to be a morning person on the weekend.“ 

Sure, if she had a reason to get up early in the morning, like training or going to school or meeting up with Luz, she could – she wasn’t thrilled about it, but enough hot liquid and she’d be awake, and if it was worth it, she would do it without complaint... but that didn’t mean she was a morning person. 

When given the chance to sleep in, she took it, especially since she spent most of her weeknights up studying and usually didn’t get that much sleep.

“...you know what, that’s fair.” More chuckling. “Aren’t you hungry though? You haven’t eaten in over twelve hours now.”

Slowly, Amity was starting to actually wake up, and when she finally did, she realized she wasn’t in her room. The soft, warm blanket wasn’t hers, and when she slowly poked her head out of the blanket cocoon into the light of day, she started remembering where she was.

“Oh, right. I’m not at home.” 

She rubbed her eyes, and when they’d accustomed to the bright morning light, looked back up at Luz’s smiling face. 

“Morning, you. Did you sleep okay?”

Now  _that_ was a sight Amity wanted to wake up to every day for the rest of her life.

“Amazing...” She zoned out for a couple of seconds, then forced herself to snap out of it before Luz could get weirded out or question  _why_ she was staring. “I mean, I just-” She cleared her throat, blushing a bit. “I got a lot of sleep that I kinda needed after barely sleeping at all yesterday... and the cuddling was really comfortable. I haven’t slept this well in ages.”

The day before, she’d not been able to sleep for basically the entire night because she’d been both incredibly sad about Luz leaving and insanely nervous about her plan to confess to her. 

_ ‘Which I still haven’t done. We almost kissed yesterday, and I somehow still didn’t manage to say it out loud. Titan, why is this so hard?!’ _

Amity was still so insanely afraid of rejection. She still had nightmares about that damn Grom rejection,  _and that hadn’t even actually been Luz._

And on top of everything, the one time she had managed to find the courage to say something, she’d been interrupted, because of course she had been.

“...hey, are you okay? You look a bit upset.”

Luz’s soft voice stopped Amity’s racing thoughts abruptly. The green-haired witch took a deep breath to calm herself down as she collected her thoughts. 

“Yeah. Sorry. I’m fine. Just not really awake yet.” She was still going to do it. She was still going to confess to Luz. But... not when she was half asleep.  _‘Am I just making excuses at this point?’_

She probably was.

“Couldn’t sleep the day before I left the Boiling Isles either, huh?”

Amity shook her head.

“...not really. Imagining being without you after spending so much time together during the last couple of months really hurt.”

She sighed, finally finding the energy to sit up. 

She let out a surprised, pained yelp when she moved her back. 

Luz immediately moved to her side and helped her sit up carefully.

“There you go.” Luz eyed her friend worriedly. “Is it your injury again?”

Amity bit her lip and avoided her friend’s worried glance for a moment, then looked back up at her and sighed. She still wasn’t great at admitting weakness—she’d probably never be, after a life of being told being vulnerable made you weak; that compassion and pity were the same thing, and that someone who received either was worthless—but she’d learned her lesson the day before. 

No more lying to Luz about anything injury-related.

“It’s better than it was, I swear, and you did really well yesterday... but I’d be lying if I said it doesn’t still hurt. A lot.” She felt especially bad about admitting her pain because she didn’t want Luz to feel like it was her fault again, or like what she’d done yesterday hadn’t been enough, because she’d done her best,  _and her best was beyond amazing._ Amity didn’t want Luz to feel like she wasn’t good enough. _ ‘Please... I just don’t want you to cry again. Especially not because of me.’_

“That bad, huh?” Luz mumbled, unable to tear her eyes from Amity’s pained expression.

Her friend nodded, leaning slightly against her to distract herself a bit.

“I didn’t even feel anything until a moment ago, but the second I moved, it felt like my whole back was lit on fire.”

Luz gently squeezed Amity’s shoulder. She’d kind of expected this—burn injuries took a while to heal, after all, and Amity’s was still pretty fresh. Her back would probably still be sore for a while.

“I guess the painkillers wore off, huh?”

She’d have to go get some more... and hope her mom wouldn’t realize that they were disappearing just yet. Once she did, it would raise some questions that Luz still was not quite ready to answer just yet.

Amity looked at her friend in confusion.

“...wait, those weren’t permanent? Why are they called pain _killers_ if the effect is only temporary, and they don’t actually kill the pain? That’s super confusing!”

Luz blinked. She’d never thought about that before.

“...I have no idea, actually. But now that you mention it, yeah, that  _is_ kinda weird.” She shook her head. “But that’s a mystery for another time. Right now, I’m going to get you some painkillers...  _and_ I’m going to try and use my healing glyphs.”

If anyone found out either of them was able to use magic, they’d be in big trouble. But right now, Luz’s mom was at work, so they were alone in the house. If she’d close the curtains, maybe closed the door of her room as well, just to be safe... they should be fine. 

She had to give it a shot. 

Anything to make Amity feel better faster.

“Luz...” Amity protested, but her friend shook her head and had that determined look on her face that the green-haired witch knew all too well.

Nothing she could have said right now would have talked Luz out of doing this.

“No. This will not be discussed.”

Amity sighed.

“...you don’t need to take care of me so much, you know.  _I could manage.”_

Luz knew her friend well enough by now to see past the surface of her words—to know that this wasn’t Amity asking Luz to stop taking care of her because she didn’t want her to, but rather it was Amity seeking reassurance... so reassurance she received.

“Yeah, but that’s what friends are for, you goof. I’m not doing anything I’m doing because I  need to or feel obligated to do it. I do it because you’re important to me and _I_ _ want __to.”_ Luz offered Amity the sweetest smile she had and one of her hands found Amity’s and squeezed it slightly. _ ‘Meeting you was one of the best things that ever happened to me. You’re not a burden, and you never will be.’_

Amity nodded, her face lighting up in relief.

“...okay. Do it, then.”

Luz nodded. She got up, closed the purple curtains, then the door to her room and then took her glyph notebook out of her bag—it was the only thing still left in there, after she’d spent about half an hour while Amity had still been asleep unpacking the rest of her stuff, since she was planning to carry them with her everywhere, just in case. 

She ripped out two of the pages with healing glyphs on them to then sit back down on the bed and lifted the back of Amity’s shirt a little to put the two pieces of paper on her friend’s bandaged back carefully. 

When Luz tapped on the glyphs, just gently, lo and behold, they turned into dark blue light and disappeared right through the bandages into Amity’s body.

“Did it work? How are you feeling?” Luz asked immediately.

She was too worried about her friend to realize what this actually meant—that she’d just proven that magic did indeed still work in this realm.

“I...” The green-haired witch blinked. The pain wasn’t gone entirely, but she felt  _so much better_ already. She wasn’t sure if the spell had just numbed the pain or done anything to actually fix the damage a bit, but it had definitely helped. _“_ _Wow._ You’re getting _really good_ at this, huh?”

Luz immediately noticed the change in her friend’s expression. Her heart skipped a beat.

“You’re feeling better?  _You’re really feeling better?”_

Amity nodded.

“...yeah. A lot, actually. I don’t even think I need any more of those painkillers right now.” She beamed at her friend. “Thank you, Luz. For everything.”

Luz felt a wave of relief wash over her upon hearing that. She immediately threw her arms around her friend’s neck— once again careful to avoid touching her lower back by accident.

“Oh, I’m so glad!”

Amity melted into the touch, smiling as she snuggled against Luz.

“You’re amazing, you know that, right?”

“Who? Me?  _Naaah.”_ Luz shook her head and waved her hands defensively. “But it’s sweet of you to say that. I  _am_ trying my best.”

Amity hugged her even tighter.

“No, Luz. You  _are_ amazing.  _This will not be discussed.”_

She winked at her. 

The human girl felt her heart flutter in her chest again.

“So are you...” Luz said softly as she slowly let go of her friend, looking directly into Amity’s eyes, Luz’s hands still resting on Amity’s shoulders. Gosh, spending so much time with the green-haired witch was slowly turning Luz’s brain to complete mush.  _‘...not that I’m complaining, though.’_

It took Amity a few seconds of recovering from enjoying the hug maybe way too much to finally realize what both she and Luz had so far kind of not thought about much.

“Luz... you just successfully did magic in the human realm for the first time,” she gasped in amazement.

Luz’s eyes went wide, and she let go of Amity in complete shock, just gaping like a fish for a moment until she properly processed what had just happened.

“I just did magic? I JUST DID MAGIC!” she yelled, enthusiastically punching a fist into the air and squealing with joy, completely overwhelmed with happiness about that discovery. Then someone outside on the street honked their car horn at something very likely unrelated to Luz’s yell, prompting her to be pulled back into reality, and her common sense returned. She lowered her raised fist and rubbed the back of her neck. “...whoops. That was a bit loud. Maybe I should not be screaming that through the entire neighborhood.”

“Yeah, maybe not.” Amity chuckled.  _‘You’re really cute when you’re excited, though.’_

“I just did magic...” Luz breathed, still completely amazed.

She hadn’t been aware of just how afraid she’d been to lose that ability before now. 

She’d known she was scared of losing it, of course, but now she realized that during the past couple of months, doing magic had become as natural and normal to her as breathing, and suddenly losing the ability to cast spells would have felt like she was missing a part of herself.

It wasn’t even like she’d be able to cast spells here often—if she got caught doing any, it wouldn’t end well... but just knowing that her magical abilities would be there, should she ever need them in this world, was a huge weight off her chest.

“I’m so happy for you.” 

Luz being happy and excited never failed to make Amity smile. 

“Also, slight change of topic, but speaking of magic,” Amity began after a while, only half-joking, “how exactly do you look this perfect this early in the morning? What kind of witchcraft is that? Can you teach me?”

Amity was very well aware that she probably looked like a complete mess right now—she always had a terrible bed head—so how Luz was sitting next to her, every single hair in place, she didn’t understand.

Luz chuckled.

“I mean, it’s past ten, so it’s not really that early anymore? Also, I’ve kind of been up for more than two hours.” She shrugged. “You looked so tired, so I decided to let you sleep while I showered, did the dishes, unpacked my bag and cleaned my room a bit—I‘m sorry about the slight chaos here yesterday, I wasn’t expecting visitors when I come back, so I didn’t really tidy up before I left.”

Although, honestly, even if she had known, she wasn’t sure if she’d have had the motivation to do it, considering just how bad her mood had been right before she left.

“It’s fine. And how you’re awake enough this early to do any of that is beyond me. Also, you’re wrong. On the weekend, ten is definitely early.”

Luz let out a hearty laugh.

“Now you’re starting to sound like Eda.”

“Is that a good or a bad thing?”

Amity giggled, then bit her lip and blushed when her stomach started rumbling loudly.

“Honestly, I’m not sure,” Luz replied, shrugging but still chuckling. “So you  are hungry, after all, huh?” Amity blushed even more because she was so embarrassed, but she didn’t deny it. “Be right back.”

Luz smiled at her, then got up and left the room abruptly.

  
  


She returned with a tray a couple of minutes later.

“...I kinda forgot to mention this earlier when I was listing the things I did while you were still asleep, but I also went to the bakery down the street while I was at it. Breakfast?”

She’d originally set the table downstairs, but since Amity was still pretty tired and should be taking it a bit easy because of her injury,healing spells or not, they might as well have breakfast in bed.

She pulled the night stand a little closer to the middle of the bed and set the tray down.

Amity’s mouth watered immediately at the wonderful scent. There were a bunch of food items she had never seen before on the tray, as well as some strangely not purple bread and two cups of something that was steaming and smelled like fruits.

_“...titan, I could marry you right now,”_ she mumbled, staring at the food and then at Luz with equal amounts of amazement. 

Aside from affectionate gestures in general, this was probably one of the fastest ways into Amity’s heart... and once again, she was wondering if it was possible to be any more in love with Luz than she already was.

Luz blushed.

“Nawww, stop it, you’re giving me way too much credit. This wasn’t even  _that_ much work.”

Still, Amity teared up a bit at the sight.

“Nobody in my family has made me breakfast since I was... four, I think?”  _Because screw preparing the food for your kids yourself when you had servants for that, right? And who needed to have breakfast together as a family if you could instead be at work early!_ “So maybe that’s stupid, but... this means a lot. Really. Thank you.”

Luz looked at Amity in shock.

“Your parents don’t even make you anything special for your birthday?” 

Amity shook her head. 

“They’re usually not even home on my birthday, except if it’s on the weekend. And they always invite tons of adults I don’t even know to my birthday parties and I’m barely allowed to invite any friends my age, except if our parents work together.”

She couldn’t even remember the last time her parents had taken the day off of work just to celebrate her birthday with her – usually, all she got were a couple of unnecessarily expensive gifts that made it blatantly obvious that they had no idea what Amity actually liked and that felt like her parents were either forgetting that she wasn’t five anymore or like they were more for them than for Amity... and that was if they didn’t forget her birthday altogether. 

One time, her mother had wished her a happy birthday three days late—one day before another one of these stupid pseudo celebrations that had nothing to do with Amity and everything to do with her parents—and then told her to ‘ _stop obsessing over dates so much_ ’ when her daughter had corrected her. 

Amity had been six at the time.

“I know they were bad, but...  _wow. What the hell is wrong with your parents?!”_

Luz was completely speechless. She’d not really heard any good things about Amity’s parents in the past couple months, and she still wasn’t over the fact that they’d made Amity end her friendship with Willow  _on her own freaking birthday_... but how messed up did they have to be to turn their own daughter’s birthday party into a political event and then not even care enough about their child to celebrate with her and actually make it about her, even in private?

Luz made a mental note to plan a surprise party for Amity’s next birthday, because she deserved to have a birthday party that was actually for and about  _her_ for once.

Amity just shrugged.

“I have no idea, honestly. But let’s not talk about them anymore. They’re already constantly getting way more attention than they deserve, they shouldn’t get ours on top of it.” She sighed, then redirected her attention to the food. “What’s that colorful stuff in the jars?”

Luz respected Amity’s wish to change the topic—despite her own desire to throw a few choice words in her parents’ direction beforehand.

“It’s different kinds of jam,” she explained, leaving Amity even more confused than she had been prior to the explanation.

“...humans put music on their bread slices?”

Luz chuckled. 

_Of course one of the few human sayings she had actually managed to explain to her friends had a second meaning she didn’t think about when explaining that ended up being confusing. _

“Not that kind of jam. It’s...” she thought for a moment about how she could best explain it, then remembered that the Boiling Isles actually had something rather similar, “our word for ‘sweet fruit guts’. We have a bunch of different ones, so I thought I’d just bring those and a couple spoons up here so you can try them and decide what you want to put on your bread buns.”

They spent a while eating in peace—Amity gasped in amazement at just how sweet and good the jam stuff was, and had a hard time picking just one or two, and Luz promised she’d be allowed to take some home if she wanted to—when the silence was suddenly interrupted by a muffled voice from behind them starting to shout.

“Answer our freaking messages!”

The two of them flinched, very startled by the sudden yell. It took them a moment to realize that it was coming from the scroll that they’d hidden in a drawer of Luz’s study desk the day before.

Luz got up and waited until Amity had put her plate back onto the tray before she handed it to her.

“...we completely forgot to check the messages again yesterday, didn’t we? Whoops.” Amity felt yesterday’s worry return as she picked up her scroll and opened her messenger. She almost fell backwards onto the bed when she saw just how many messages there were. This was bad. Lots of messages usually didn’t mean good news—and that someone had bewitched one of them so that the scroll actively started complaining definitely didn’t mean good news, especially since that particular message was from one of the twins as far as she could tell at first glance. They only used these kinds of messages to either actively mess with someone as a joke... or if it was an emergency. “I hope the others are okay...”

Luz glanced at the scroll.

“Is it okay if I-” Amith nodded. She actually preferred Luz being there with her, especially in case the news were actually as bad as she was afraid they were. Luz moved closer to her friend to be able to look at the texts with Amity. “Alright then. Time to find out what’s going on.”

Over on the Boiling Isles, Gus, Willow and the twins were back at the owl house. They were all sitting on the couches around the living room table—Eda and King on the green one, the twins and Gus on the red one. The only one who wasn’t sitting currently was Willow, who was standing at the stove. She was also the only one out of all of them who didn’t look at least slightly dead thanks to lack of sleep, which was the main reason she was doing this in the first place—doing anything that involved hot stoves and boiling hot liquid wasn’t a great idea when you weren’t entirely awake yet.

How bad the others looked varied, from Eda’s _ ‘I don’t get enough sleep very often, so I’m used to it’_ -look to King being asleep on her lap, with everyone else being somewhere in between.

“Okay, genuine question,” Willow asked as she looked at the others, “did anyone get any sleep tonight? Like, at all?”

No one said a single word, save for Edric, who nodded vigorously.

“I got a solid twenty minutes.”

Willow sighed as she added more ingredients to the boiling fluid in the pot in front of her and started stirring again.

“...I’m making more morning potion. Got it.”

“So much happened yesterday! How was anyone supposed to sleep after that?” Gus asked, who seemed surprisingly awake despite his lack of sleep.

He was probably the only one in the room except for Willow who was.

Emira groaned, leaning heavily on the table in her half-asleep state.

“We spent all night up trying to figure out how to break everything that’s happened to Amity.”

The twins, Willow and Gus had spent a while discussing who would tell Amity about everything while walking back to Bonesborough the previous day... and eventually, they’d decided that it would be best if Edric and Emira told her, since they’d spent enough time messing with their sister to know which buttons not to push if they didn’t want her to be upset—or, well, even more upset than anyone would be after finding out they were betrayed by their mentor and that their dream job involved killing their crush.

“King and I stayed up collecting what remains of the portal. It’s... not much, far from enough to just do a reconstruction spell.” 

Not that Eda had gotten her hopes up a lot to begin with. After that, she’d pulled an all-nighter trying to think of a different solution for their portal-related problem... with pretty unsatisfying results.

“I helped, too, Hoot Hoot! I made sure the lights stayed on!”

“Alright, me, King and Hooty stayed up all night to do so,” Eda quickly corrected herself. She then looked at the twins. “The good news is, nobody will have to worry about telling Amity anything anytime soon. She’s going to be stuck with Luz for a while.“

Edric raised an eyebrow.

“That... doesn’t actually sound good. I mean, she’s not going to complain about spending more time with Luz, but... If we can’t repair the portal, what can we do?”

Willow was done with the potion now, and was currently busy filling it into cups and handing them to everyone. She paused for a moment at that question.

“Is it possible to create a new portal?”

Eda nodded.

“In theory, yes. I mean, I made the other one, so of course I could make a second, similar one. But, well... a lot of the materials needed for it are rare and expensive—the second part isn’t that important for us because we’re not going to pay for them, but it seemed worth mentioning—and it requires an insane amount of magic to open a portal, so this is not going to be easy, and it’s going to take a long time.”

Emira immediately snatched one of the cups from Willow and downed it in one go.

After that, she was finally able to lift her head properly.

“Oh look, I’m alive again!” She rubbed her eyes and stretched her arms towards the ceiling as the potion’s energy spread though her. “Thanks, Willow. That was a strong one.”

“No problem!” Willow replied, then mumbled “...I’m just glad I did a spell to cool it down before I brought these here,” under her breath while handing out the rest of the cups.

A couple minutes later, everyone was doing far better.

“Now that we’re all no longer half-asleep... back to the question at hand!” Gus said, looking at Eda. “You said creating a new portal will take pretty long. How much time are we talking about here? Weeks? Months?”

Eda shook her head and sighed. Now for the part that none of the people present, herself included, would like very much.

“Years. It took me over a decade to create the one that’s now busted.”

The room went dead silent for a few seconds, until suddenly, it wasn’t anymore.

** “OVER A DECADE?!” **

Emira’s shocked, terrified yelling was so loud, it woke King and made him jump off of Eda’s lap, startled as he was.

“I’m awake!  _I’m awake!”_

Eda sighed.

“Sorry about that. I just told them what I told you earlier. About how long it took me to make the other portal.”

“I told you they wouldn’t be thrilled!”

Eda rolled her eyes.

“And  _I_ told  _you_ that’s not some kind of surprising, shocking discovery. Of course they’re not thrilled! I’d be worried if they were!”

That was the main reason Eda had not been able to sleep the night before. The thought of being separated from the girl that was basically her daughter now for such a long time broke her—and the longer Amity was forced to stay there, the more danger she would be in. No matter how smart and skilled she was, at some point, she was going to slip up, and then it would all be over.

“What are we going to do?!”

Gus was freaking out. To be fair, pretty much everyone in the room was, except for Eda and King, who had already done their fair share of freaking out a couple of hours ago.

“We have to get them back sooner somehow! They can’t wait that long! That’s way too dangerous!” 

Willow had spent basically the whole summer worrying about her friends, since saying Luz had a knack for getting into trouble would have been a massive understatement... but she was pretty sure she’d never been as worried as she was right now. 

She couldn’t lose one of her best friends like that. Not so soon after meeting her. 

And she couldn’t lose Amity again so soon after finally letting her back into her life—after they’d finally started fixing things between them. 

But Willow didn’t allow herself to freak out. She had to stay at least somewhat level-headed. Surely, there was some kind of solution for this. 

There had to be.

“We can’t just leave Mittens stranded there for more than ten years!” Emira protested, as if complaining about it enough would change anything about this fact.

She wasn’t ready to accept that Amity... would really be gone this long.

Emira’s heart dropped to her stomach. What if something happened to her little sister while she was there? What if she got in trouble? What if she got hurt? What if-

“Yeah! What if she and Luz get married in the meantime, and we can’t attend?!”

Emira rolled her eyes and elbowed her twin brother.

“Edric! Priorities!”

He looked back at her sheepishly.

“...right. Sorry.”

Emira sighed. She knew her brother just meant well. This was just his way of freaking out just as much as she was, and she couldn’t really blame him for not wanting to miss such an important part of their little sister’s life... but the fact that they would be missing ten years of it was way worse than some random event that might or might not take place during that time—even if that random event was something as important as a wedding.

Missing ten years of Amity’s life meant they’d miss ten of her birthdays. They’d miss seeing her grow from a young teen into an adult. They’d miss seeing her freak out over her first date, and all the stupid, wonderful things that came with that. 

They’d also miss her gr-

Emira gasped, her racing thoughts coming to a sudden halt when she realized that they could not, in fact, miss Amity’s graduation... because if she wasn’t here, she wouldn’t be able to attend Hexside.

Her voice was barely a whisper when she spoke again.

_ “Amity is going to miss so much school. She won’t be able to graduate.” _

Imagining just how crushed Amity would be once she found out about that was too much.

She had been working so hard for so many years to get to where she was right now, barely allowing herself to have an actual childhood, their parents putting more and more pressure on her the older she grew. 

And now that was all supposed to be in vain?

Even if what had happened yesterday would be enough to convince Amity not to join the Emperor’s Coven—with her abilities, and considering how good she was at school, she’d never have any trouble finding a different coven that took her in.

But if she couldn’t even finish school...

_ ‘This isn’t fair...’ _

And after several years of acting stronger than she was, Emira Blight’s seemingly unbreakable facade finally crumbled, and she broke down crying.   
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, feedback is super appreciated as always! 
> 
> This chapter is super late, I’m sorry! It’s been... a stressful week. *sigh*  
> First things first: I’m changing the day I update again, to Sunday this time – so, basically, nothing changes for you XD  
> I figured out I really need the entire weekend to write a chapter in case I don’t get that much done during the week, which is more likely than I wish it was, so it’s going to be less stressful for me that way, I hope that’s okay with you guys! Sorry about changing the schedule again so soon after changing it for the first time🙈  
> Also, I now have a very good reason to not be able to write during the week as much: I don’t know how many of you guys have heard of this project yet, but I’ve been selected as a creator for the Lumity zine https://instagram.com/begaydowitchcraft?igshid=yhzh6of8gdqg, which I’m insanely excited about *squeals happily*, so I’m of course going to be working hard on what I’m planning to create for that while I continue working on this fic! I might also be taking a week off from this fic occasionally to continue to work on my writing for the zine, so consider this a quick heads up! (I’ll of course say something in the chapter before I take a week off, and also post a reminder on my tumblr, there’s not going to just randomly not be a chapter without warning one day.)
> 
> Second of all: I know I’ve been horrible about answering comments in the last chapter – like I said, it’s been a stressful week –, but you guys were once again so amazing! Seeing all the positive feedback to my writing warms my heart each time and really keeps me motivated. I’m so, so happy about having such an active, wonderful community reading this story that supports me so much, and I promise to both still reply to as many of last week’s comments as I can now that I have the time, and to try and get better with answering them in the future.
> 
> That being said: we’ve hit 2k kudos since I last updated, and have even gone a couple hundred kudos beyond that! And we also hit 25k reads! 25K! How insane is that?! AAAAAH! THANK YOU SO MUCH!
> 
> See you guys next Sunday! 😄
> 
> I’m the meantime, please go give this toothbrush demon art some love:  
> https://marsfl0wer.tumblr.com/post/628927951293087744/heres-a-doodle-of-a-scene-from-this-fic-called


	7. Breakdown

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is super, super, super late, I’m so sorry :/  
> I really struggled with some of the scenes, and it also ended up... insanely long, so that’s why.  
> This is somehow almost 9k words, what the heck is wrong with me, god XD
> 
> Anyway, have fun reading, I hope you enjoy!

“Em...” 

Edric reached out and pulled his crying sister into a hug. She just continued to sob into his chest in silence. 

This was scary. This was really freaking scary. Emira didn’t cry. Not even in private, like Edric sometimes did, when everything just became too much. 

She always held her head up high and seemed above it all, even when their parents spent an hour after dinner yelling at her for not getting a perfect score on an exam.

Sometimes, there were cracks in the mask, when her smiles seemed more forced and pained than genuine... but Edric had never seen her break down the way it was happening right now.

“Em, it’s going to be okay.”

“DON’T!” Edric flinched slightly at the harshness of his sister’s voice, but even now, he didn’t let go. She needed him right now. He sucked at comforting people, but she needed him right now, so he wasn’t going to let her down like that. “NOTHING’S EVER GOING TO BE OKAY AGAIN!”

He didn’t flinch as much the second time she started yelling.

Honestly, this was probably good for her.

Emira was almost notorious for always keeping her negative emotions bottled up. 

Another day, another fake smile—another dumb prank to keep her mind off of everything. Don’t let anyone see your pain. Don’t even admit it to yourself. 

Eventually, something had been bound to happen that was just too much and finally broke down her walls.

“Good. Let it  _alllll_ out. You’ll feel better afterwards.” He rubbed her back a little. “We’ll find a way, okay? We won’t leave her stranded there for so long, I promise. There has to be  _something_ we can do.”

“I mean, technically, we already have a bit of an advantage because we’re more than one person,” Eda chimed in. She still wasn’t very good at handling crying kids on her couch, despite the fact that she’d had a surprising lot of them to deal with over the summer. “But you kids are still students.”

“So, if you’re saying our number helps... is there a way we could speed this up further?” Gus asked, his dad’s reporter-curiosity getting the better of him and pushing his panic into the back of his mind a little as the wheels in his head started turning. “Assuming we could gather more people – could we open a portal faster?”

“Well, yes... but it’s a bit more complicated than that.” Eda sighed. She’d spent a lot of time thinking about this. “Since, according to what my sister said, it was the Emperor’s orders that led to the portal being destroyed because he wanted Luz gone so much, he’s not going to be thrilled if we open another one to get her back—meaning whoever helps us is probably going to have a place on Belos’ hit list afterwards... and also that, if we choose the wrong person to help us, they might tell on us, resulting in all of us potentially getting captured and never actually being able to complete the portal. Which means we’d need a bunch of powerful witches we can trust unconditionally.”

“So... not very achievable right now.” Willow sighed. “Any other ideas?”

King thought for a moment.

“If we at least had a way to get Amity back, that would already help, right?” He looked at the twins. “Don’t your parents have lots of influence? Couldn’t they ask the Emperor to help rescue their daughter? I’m sure he has a portal of his own somewhere...”

Whether or not that was true was pure speculation—but it was worth a shot, right?

Eda sighed.

“I mean, Amity wouldn’t be thrilled about leaving Luz behind... but honestly, it would be a lot less dangerous for both of them if at least Amity was back in the Boiling Isles.” 

Who knew what humans did to people found guilty of hiding a dangerous witch? Eda, for one, would be glad if Luz and her mother never had to find out.

Emira looked up, her face full of uncertainty as she exchanged looks with her brother and Willow. They were all thinking the same thing.

Edric sighed.

“Okay. We’ll try asking mom and dad, but honestly... don’t get your hopes up.”

Emira nodded, her voice still shaking a bit from all the crying when she spoke.

“They’d never do anything that could potentially hurt their standing with the Emperor.” She bit her lip. _‘Not even for their own kids.’_

But they had to try. For Amity.

There was nothing she wasn’t willing to do for even the slimmest chance of rescuing her a little earlier.

“Is there anything else we can try, both in the likely case this doesn’t end up working out and because we still need a solution for how to get Luz back, even if it does?” Willow asked.

She knew enough about what Amity’s parents were like to know why the twins were talking the way they were—most likely, even if they did ask, they’d still have to solve this problem themselves.

“Well, there’s a couple potions that could also help, but it’s not the kind of stuff they sell on the regular market. Honestly, most of it is not even the kind of stuff they sell on the night market. Some of these I assume only the head of the Potions Coven herself has access to.” Eda sighed. “So, basically... we have nothing that could really help us right now.”

That was a pretty narrow outlook, but she’d had worse ones before. She’d known from the start that this wouldn’t be easy, but there wasn’t anything she wasn’t willing to try to get Luz back, no matter how dumb and dangerous it was and how long it took. 

“Actually,” Gus said after a while, “I spent some time thinking about which people we could ask for help, and I think I might have an idea. Luz is friends with the double-track kids, and they’re the same grade as Edric and Emira, right? Maybe the twins could talk to them and ask them to help us.”

Emira’s face lit up immediately.

“That’s an excellent idea, Gus! We have some classes together, we’ll come up with an excuse to speak to them after school as soon as possible.”

Edric looked at his sister and rolled his eyes in slight amusement, very well aware of the reason she was so excited all of a sudden.

“Em, Eda said  _‘powerful witches we can trust’_ , not  _‘powerful witches you want to make out with’_.”

Emira crossed her arms.

“A person can be trustworthy  and cute, Edric. Those aren’t mutually exclusive, you know.”

He elbowed his sister, significantly less annoyed than he pretended to be.

“You’re impossible sometimes.”

Emira raised an eyebrow, pretending to be offended.

“Only sometimes? Dang it, I need to step up!”

Edric chuckled, and then, so did his twin sister. 

As stupid as this whole conversation was... at least she wasn’t crying anymore.

“I’m with Gus and Emira here,” Willow chimed in. “The troublemakers really like Luz, and they’re technically already opposing the Emperor, since we’re not supposed to study more than one track. And even if they don’t agree to help us, they’re not the kind of people that would sell us out, so asking them is definitely worth a shot.”

“See?” Emira grinned at her brother triumphantly. “It’s settled, then.”

It was now that one of them—Gus, to be exact—finally bothered to check his messages again because his scroll buzzed slightly in his pocket, and then he realized he had five new messages.

He opened them.

“Guys, Amity wrote back!”

This prompted everyone else to check their scrolls as well.

“...yeah, and the first time was three hours ago,” Emira mumbled after she’d checked hers. “Whoops.”

Edric breathed a sigh of relief.

“At least she’s okay, so that’s good.” They’d gotten very worried when they’d messaged their sister back the day before—not very in detail, just reassuring her that everyone was fine but that there were issues with the portal—and she hadn’t replied again. Sure, she’d said she was fine, but neither them nor Gus and Willow knew  that much about the human realm, so who knew what kind of trouble she could have gotten into after sending that message? “I don’t think she appreciated us going so overboard with the messages, Em.”

His sister chuckled.

“No, apparently not.” She thought for a moment. “...maybe we should call her? It might be easier to tell her everything in person.”

“Okay, but... what exactly are we telling her?” Gus asked.

That part was still kind of unclear.

Emira shrugged.

“The truth. That she’s going to have to stay with Luz for a while.”

Willow raised an eyebrow.

“Define  ‘ _while_ ’?”

That didn’t sound like Emira was planning on being honest with her sister.

“Well, we don’t know exactly how long this will take, right? So we should just tell her it’s going to take some time to take care of the portal—a couple of weeks, at least,” Emira responded.

Her brother nodded, before he added, “I mean, technically, that’s not even a lie, even if we do end up taking several years,“ to what his twin sister had said.

The plant-track witch sighed loudly.

“Well, that’s definitely not going to blow up in our faces,” she mumbled, very well aware that there would be no reasoning with these guys. “...oh well. Amity is  _your_ sister, so it’s your call, I guess. But if this goes wrong, I reserve the right to say  ‘ _I told you so._ ’”

Eda placed her crystal ball on the table between the two couches and gestured for the twins to set it to whatever Amity’s mirror frequency was.

“Let’s just try to reach them and make sure they’re alright.”

A few minutes later, the crystal ball finally connected to Amity’s hand mirror. 

Emira had made sure to use a spell before they did so that she didn’t look like she’d just cried anymore.

Hooty had been temporarily silenced with a spell, because as much as Eda liked him, he wasn’t... great at keeping secrets.

The glass stayed black for a bit after it had made the connection, then Luz and Amity stared back at the others.

Luz waved excitedly.

“Hey guys!”

“Oh look, you’re alive, after all. We were beginning to have doubts.”

Despite Eda’s sarcastic comment, nobody missed the relief washing over her when she saw the two girls.

Luz smiled back at her.

“Awww, love you too, mom.”

Eda chuckled, her facial expressions getting even softer.

“Don’t get cheeky with me, kid.”

“Luz!” King jumped up at the table in excitement—then turned away and crossed his arms. “I totally don’t miss you. At all.”

Luz chuckled.

“Miss you too, King. I already miss all of you, actually.”

Amity was too busy being annoyed with her siblings for heartfelt greetings, now that she was sure they were okay.

“Are you guys serious? First you send me  _hundreds_ of messages and have my scroll yell at me because you’re so worried, and then you don’t even reply when I write back?”

She sounded more annoyed than she actually was. She was too happy that everyone seemed to be alright, and she actually thought that her siblings’ concern was kind of sweet.

“Believe it or not, we had important things to do, Mittens,” Edric replied with a shrug.

“What took  _you_ so long to reply after we wrote back the first time, anyway? We didn’t hear back from you all evening. Did anything  _interesting_ happen yesterday?”

Amity growled at the tone of her sister’s voice and Emira’s exaggeratedly wiggling her eyebrows, but she could feel her face heating up. The others exchanged a look when Luz turned away blushing as well.

Eda raised an eyebrow.

_ “Oh?” _

“It’s nothing! We just... almost kissed by accident, and now we’re  _totally_ not being weird about it!” Luz blurted out. 

Amity blushed even deeper and sighed at the way her siblings were looking at her. 

She would  _never_ hear the end of this.

“Wow, Mittens has more game than we gave her credit for,” Edric whispered.

Emira just grinned.

“How do you almost kiss by accident?” Willow asked, slightly confused.

Gus on the other hand seemed to be the only one that still genuinely didn’t understand what was going on.

“Uh, why are their faces so red?”

“It’s a long story, Willow! And it’s kinda dumb! Let’s not talk about that!” Amity said rapidly before Luz had the chance to reply, determined to keep as much information about the incident from her siblings as she possibly could. “Don’t we have more important stuff to talk about?” She cocked her head, thankful when she remembered that there actually  was something they needed to talk about that she could change the topic to. “What happened yesterday? One minute, I’m going after Luz, and the next thing I know, _the entire freaking door blows up behind us!”_

The messages she’d gotten had been very vague when it came to what had actually happened.

The others exchanged a worried look. That sounded like Luz and Amity had been  _in range_ when Lilith had blasted the portal to smithereens.

“You... you guys weren’t hurt, were you?” Emira asked, looking directly at her younger sibling.

Amity smiled, maybe a bit moved by her older sister’s concern.

“We’re okay.”

Luz eyed her worriedly.

“Amity, you have burns all over your back. That’s not  _‘okay’ _ in any sense of the word.”

Emira clenched her fists. Okay, that was it. She was going to kill Lilith.

Edric had the exact same reaction. 

Their remaining friends didn’t look too thrilled, either, all looking at them worriedly.

Amity sighed audibly.

“Yeah, but did you have to tell  _them_ that? There’s no need for them to worry unnecessarily. It isn’t  _that_ bad, especially since what you did really helped.” She gave her crush a small, thankful smile. “And besides, I told you I’d go see a healer as soon as I get back to the Boiling Isles.”

Edric cleared his throat. That just made him feel worse about what he was about to tell her—although he still made sure to say it as enthusiastic and positive as possible.

“Yeah, about that... good news! You’ll get to spend a lot more time with Luz!”

The two girls exchanged a look. 

Amity cocked her head and looked at her brother in confusion.

“What’s  _that_ supposed to mean?”

“We were sort of... attacked yesterday. We don’t know exactly who it was or why they did it, but they targeted the portal specifically, and it’s pretty busted right now,” Emira summed up what had happened without actually telling her sister and her sister’s crush anything that they didn’t need to worry about right now.

Luz gulped. Her mouth went dry, all the scary thoughts from the day before returning as she started to panic.

“The portal’s... gone?” What if she could never go back to the Boiling Isles?  _‘What if... what if Amity can never go home again?’_

King nodded.

“Yeah.” The two teenage girls on the other side of the line didn’t appreciate the demon’s dramatic pause before he added, “No need to freak out, though! Eda said we can make a new one!”

Amity glared at him.

“King, that wasn’t funny! I almost had a heart attack!”

Meanwhile, Luz looked at her mentor.

“How long does it take to create a new portal? I mean, I’m not a magical-portal-expert or anything, but that sounds like something that could take pretty long.”

Eda shrugged.

“A few weeks, at least. The exact time is anyone’s guess though.”

_“Weeks?”_ Amity went pale. This was  horrible.  _“Mom and dad are going to kill me.”_

There was something about the way Amity said that that Luz absolutely didn’t like.

The human girl put her arm around her friend and gave her a bright, encouraging smile in an attempt to keep her mind off things and cheer her up a bit.

“Don’t worry, I’ll do my best to keep you occupied so you don’t get bored, okay?” Spending extra time with Amity, despite it not being under the greatest of circumstances, wasn’t something Luz would ever complain about. She actually felt her heart flutter a little when she imagined all the things she’d get to share with her friend. “I’m sure we can handle a few weeks of living together without you getting sick of me,” she added with a wink.

Amity was still freaking out. 

Getting sick of Luz wasn’t the part she was worried about—if anything, getting to spend more time with Luz was the only good thing about this messed up situation—but there were plenty of other things she worried about a whole lot.

This unfamiliar environment freaked her out. She missed the assessable deadliness of her home.

What if they got attacked by another one of these monsters from earlier? Amity knew how to defend herself from Boiling Isles-monsters, but she’d never fought anything like that before. 

What if they came across more toothbrush-demons that Luz didn’t take seriously? What if one of them seriously injured her? Amity wasn’t good with healing magic. What if she got Luz in trouble? _What if-_

Gus’ voice suddenly interrupted her thoughts.

“Oh, I’m so jealous! You get to see so many things in the human world, that’s so exciting!” After worrying so much about his friends the previous hours, Gus was suddenly super thrilled about that, now that he was sure Amity and Luz were alright. “When you get back, you have to tell me everything!”

Amity felt her face redden with anger.

She knew her friend was just excited and wasn’t saying these things out of ill will, but she was on the verge of a mental breakdown and this wasn’t exactly helping.

But before she could yell at him, her former best friend did.

_ “Gus! Not helping!” _

Willow gave the youngest of the group a warning glance. 

Thankfully, he got the hint.

“...sorry.”

Luz smiled at Gus while she squeezed Amity’s shoulder to comfort her. 

Amity immediately relaxed a bit. She couldn’t put into words what exactly it was about Luz’s touch that always helped her remember how to breathe when she was freaked out... but that was almost its’ own kind of magic.

If she had to be stuck here with anyone, she was glad it was Luz.

“I’ll bring you some things back the next time I visit, promise.”

Gus smiled.

“Thanks, Luz. You’re the best.” 

“Awww, always.” She smiled. “Good thing you called now while mom’s still at work. She’d probably have been a little weirded out at us talking to a hand mirror.” Speaking of her mom... “Uh oh.”

It had taken Luz until now to remember that her mom was expecting Amity to leave again today—for obvious reasons—and that... couldn’t happen. Also for obvious reasons.

Eda immediately noticed the change in her daughter’s expression.

“Everything okay, kid?”

“I just realized we need your help with something else, too.” Luz turned to Edric and Emira. “You two are good at coming up with excuses, right?” The twins nodded simultaneously. “Can you help us come up with a reason for why Amity has to stay here a while longer that will convince my mom?”

About half an hour later, Luz and Amity had gone from talking to the twins via call to sending messages back and forth via scroll with them to brainstorm so the others could ‘continue working on the portal-issue’ in the meantime—whatever that meant, exactly.

Amity was still kind of panicking about the whole situation, but had managed to calm herself down enough to be able to focus on the problem at hand.

She could always resume the panicking afterwards.

So far, they’d not really been that successful in finding a solution, since most of the twins’ ideas would have worked fine on the Boiling Isles, but didn’t exactly work in the human realm, and Luz’s only idea so far had been ‘ _maybe we could hide her in a closet’_ , but that had been  _from_ a bad fanfic and would probably only have worked  _in_ a bad fanfic, so she’d scrapped it again immediately—after making a dumb joke about how she hadn’t wanted to go back to being closeted again anyway, after finally coming out to her mom a couple months ago, which Amity hadn’t understood because the concept of being closeted didn’t exist on the Boiling Isles.

But despite not managing to come up with anything before, the newest idea Emira had sent was pretty good.

“This one could work, I think.”

Luz handed Amity back her scroll so the green-haired witch could read the message.

_ ‘What if you tell her Amity got kicked out by her parents?’ _

Amity gulped. She’d expected her siblings to come up with  _something_ that worked, but... she wasn’t sure if she liked this.

She felt kind of bad for lying to Camila in the first place, and using such a heavy topic to do it didn’t feel right.

...not that she’d technically put kicking her out past her parents if they got angry enough at her.

“Luz, are you sure this is a good idea? That’s kind of a huge thing to lie about.”

Deep down, Luz knew her friend was right. Maybe they would have been better off just telling her mom the truth right now... but in addition to all of Luz’s already existing fear of her mother’s bad reaction to the truth, there was now the additional scary question of  ‘ _What if she sees Amity as a threat and doesn’t let her stay if we tell her?’_

They couldn’t risk that. 

“Well, what else are we supposed to do? If we don’t find a reason why you have to stay here, she’ll expect you to go back home. And we both know you can’t do that.” 

Amity sighed.

“I know, I know, you’re right.” It wasn’t like she had any better ideas, and if she couldn’t stay here, they’d have an even bigger problem. No matter how bad she felt about it, as long as she didn’t have a better solution, just saying  _‘no’_ solved nothing. But there was something else, too. “Luz... you’re really good at lying to your mom. Is everything okay between you two? What’s your relationship like?”

At first glance, it had seemed like Luz and Camila genuinely loved each other to Amity—actually, at second and third glance, too. Things weren’t perfect, of course, because in what family were they ever? ...but this had reached the point where Amity was getting kind of worried about something more going on beneath the surface that she just hadn’t seen yet.

“Huh. Yeah, I guess I am.” Luz sighed. “It’s just... Mom works a lot, and she’s always very tired when she gets home, and even when she isn’t... I prefer watching movies with her and laughing with her over having certain serious conversations with her. The couple of times she got called into the principal’s office for because of me were more than enough trouble, so I tend to keep everything else to myself. It’s easier that way. I love my mom, and I know she loves me. A lot. We have a good relationship, overall. We’re just... very different people, and there are some things we don’t talk about.”

Amity kind of wanted to ask what the _‘_ everything else’ Luz had mentioned was referring to, but she couldn’t bring herself to say anything. Whatever it was, it didn’t  _sound_ good.

But the tone of Luz’s voice calmed Amity’s initial bad thoughts. The way she talked about Camila made it obvious that she meant every single word she said.

Amity knew she wouldn’t have been able to talk about her own parents in that way.

Whatever was going on between Luz and her mom seemed to be more of a genuine communication issue rather than anything malicious. 

That was good, at least.

They spent the next couple of hours coming up with a story while Luz modified spells until she was able to do what she wanted to do with them.

Amity was a little freaked out when Luz merged her scroll with her little hand mirror to turn them into a single item that looked a lot more like a regular human phone than Luz had expected it to. A weirdly shaped model, and slightly larger than the average phone—but still phone-esque enough to pass as one as long as people didn’t look to closely.

“But- but how are they still supposed to work if they’re merged together?!”

“It’s just an illusion spell, remember? I can undo it at any time. And they’ll work the same way they always did... they’re just one thing now, and a little smaller. Makes it easier not to get stared at when you use them, and makes it easier to carry the scroll around.”

The merging illusion was something Gus had taught Luz towards the end of summer. She’d watched him combine his illusion magic with already existing objects rather than just creating something out of thin air—using it to make Willow’s plants appear larger and stronger, in this specific case. 

He’d also combined some of the plants together via magic, creating one bigger plant first out of two, then out of three plants. It wasn’t exactly the same thing Luz was trying to do here... but it was close enough for her to be able to figure it out with some time.

And Luz also found a more permanent solution to the issue with Amity’s ears standing out in this world—which was extremely necessary now that she would be staying here, and most likely also be attending school here.

Luz had gone through the illusion spells she’d learned over the summer, and there was one especially that seemed fitting for their particular issue—a spell that altered appearance. It was usually used for simple things, like changing eye or hair color temporarily for special occasions, and Luz had tried it a couple of times for fun already back when she’d still been on the Boiling Isles.

The only thing left for her to do was find a way to change the glyph so that it affected the form of the ears rather than hair or eyes. 

That one took a lot more trial and error than the first one, since there were tons of different ways this specific glyph could be altered, for obvious reasons. It also involved a ton more funny mishaps than the first—one time, Luz accidentally ended up turning her own hair shoulder-length, and another time, she accidentally made her ears look like elf ones instead of changing Amity’s to human ones... but eventually, she figured it out.

“Sooo, what do you think?” 

Luz looked at Amity expectantly after she’d taken her to the bathroom so she could look into the large mirror to inspect her slightly altered appearance. 

Amity spent a moment just staring at herself, then first reached for the mirror to touch the illusion ears of the reflection, and then touched the ears themselves.

“This is super weird. I don’t think I’m ever getting used to that.”

“Me neither, honestly.” Amity was right. This  _did_ look strange. Luz missed the cute, pointy ears—although there was probably no way Amity would ever not be gorgeous to her. “But I think I did a solid job at making you look more human, and you still look just as pretty as you usually do.” Luz didn’t even notice Amity’s slight blush. “ _Ooooh,_ I need to teach this to Gus when we get back to the Boiling Isles! He’ll be so excited about this!”

A couple of weeks of not going back there was okay for Luz. She could handle that. She’d expected it to be at least that long, after all, probably longer, depending on how much homework they’d be given over the different breaks and depending on whether or not her mom had something planned. 

And at least, they had a way to stay in contact with everyone, which was more than she had expected—she needed to remember to bring back a Boiling Isles mirror to her realm the next time she visited, maybe even already when she brought Amity home.

This whole situation was less than ideal, and she could tell that Amity was still really shaken by the fact that she wasn’t able to go home sooner... but Luz would do her best to keep her distracted.

“Oh, yeah, you’re right. He definitely will be.” Amity beamed at her. “You know, it’s pretty amazing that you were able to figure all this out in just a couple of hours.”

Luz smiled and blushed a little.

“I’ve been playing around with changing spells ever so slightly for different results all summer. I guess I’m just getting kinda good at it.”

“More like amazing. Don’t sell yourself short like that.”

Luz blushed.

“Thank you, that’s so sweet.”

Was Amity just being nice by making her all these compliments? Luz was almost starting to think she might be flirting with her. 

She shook her head. 

What a ridiculous thought.

“Just being honest.” Amity cleared her throat and changed the topic now that she was getting all flustered again. “How soon is your mom going to be home?”

Luz took a look at her phone to check the time.

“Soon enough that I should really start cooking in a couple of minutes. Do you want to go over what we’ll do one last time?”

Amity shook her head. 

“Thanks, but I think I’ll manage.”

It wasn’t like the plan itself was very complicated—whether or not they’d manage to pull this off was a different story, though.

While Luz went downstairs to start preparing dinner, Amity went back to her friend’s room and called her siblings again.

Luz and Amity had kept them updated about what exactly the plan was after deciding that Camila witnessing part of the call would probably make their story more believable, and asked them to make sure they were alone when Amity called again, in order to avoid possible background noise.

Thankfully, Luz had been right—Amity’s not-phone worked just fine.

“You guys ready?” she asked her siblings when they picked up.

Emira nodded.

“We went over what we’re going to say a couple of times.”

“So, we’re probably less ready than over-prepared.” Amity’s brother raised an eyebrow at her. “But are you sure  _you’re_ ready, Mittens?”

Amity rolled her eyes.

“What’s  _that_ supposed to mean?”

He shrugged.

“I mean, it’s a decent plan. You’re not very good at acting, though. We know you can’t cry on command.”

“Yeah, you’re right, Edric.” Amity sighed. She’d thought that through, as well, and while she didn’t like what she’d come up with, it looked like she would have no other choice. “But you guys know me very well, don’t you? You know what I’m afraid of and what hurts me...”

Her siblings looked at her in surprise, and it was obvious that it was slowly dawning on them what she was asking of them.

“...are you going where  _I think_ you’re going with this? Because in that case, titan, no. I’m  _not_ going to do that.” Edric crossed his arms and shook his head. “My sibling-powers are for teasing – mean-spirited teasing at most. Not for making my little sister cry.”

Amity sighed and looked at her older sister with pleading eyes.

“Emira? Please?”

Emira gulped.

“Mittens, are you sure you want me to-”

There were no words to express just how much she did  _not_ want to do this right now. But Amity nodded vigorously. 

It wasn’t like they really had much of a choice, after all. If they couldn’t pull this off... the green-haired witch didn’t even want to think about what that would mean for her. 

Weeks of sleeping in the abandoned cabin in the woods, most likely. The thought... wasn’t especially thrilling.

She shuddered.

“We need this to be as believable as possible to even start to hope it will work. If Camila doesn’t buy it, we’re screwed. Em, I want you to do your worst. Make me cry. I mean it.“

She sounded very determined.

Emira clenched fists to keep her hands from shaking, closed her eyes and took a deep breath. 

Edric had a point, but if Amity needed their help right now and this was all they were currently able to do to help her... she’d do it. What she wanted or didn’t want to do didn’t matter in that case.

“...okay. And Amity... I’m sorry.”

It only took a couple sentences out of her sister‘s mouth to shatter Amity’s heart into a million pieces.

Thanks to the small spell circle Emira had drawn into the air in front of her, it wasn’t her own voice that came out of her mouth when she started speaking, and when Amity looked up, it wasn’t her sister’s face that she saw on the screen.

Her mouth went dry.

“I expected more from you, but I guess that was my mistake.” These words in combination with  _that_ voice... that was just too much. “Your parents warned me that you were their least talented child. That you’re still using a training wand at your age is embarrassing, to say the least. But I still thought maybe,  _just maybe,_ you could be shaped into something special despite that. Well, it looks like I was wrong.”

By now, Amity had pretty much forgotten that this wasn’t real. She felt like someone had stabbed a knife through her lungs, taking away her ability to breathe.

“Lilith, I-”

“ _You’re a failure, Amity._ By far the worst student I’ve ever had. It was naive of me to ever think otherwise. And now you’re going to skip school, aren’t you? You’ll lose your badge. Your parents are going to be  so disappointed in you.”

All color drained from Amity’s face. She hadn’t even thought about the fact that she was going to miss school because of this whole issue, but now that was all she could think about. She was going to have so many absent days.  
_She’d miss so many lessons that she wouldn’t be able to ever catch up._

_ She’d have to repeat the year, and then that would go on her report and everyone would know how much of a failure she was. The Emperor’s Coven didn’t let just anyone join. There was no way they’d choose someone that had repeated a year over someone who hadn’t, no matter what the reason for the repeat was. _

_Her parents... **her parents would be livid.**_

And as Emira kept on talking with the voice that wasn’t hers for a couple more sentences, Amity spiraled. To hear all those things from someone she looked up to, someone she’d wanted to be like and maybe one day even work with... that was too much. The voices in her head got louder and louder, Lilith’s mixing with those of her parents and her teachers and eventually, those of her friends and Luz, all shouting at her that she was a failure and a disappointment and that nothing she did would ever be good enough.

Just like that, she’d lost everything she’d ever worked towards.

“MOM! YOU’RE BACK!”

Luz started yelling really loud when she heard the front door close. Hopefully, Amity had heard that and got started with her part.

Camila shook her head and chuckled when she walked into the kitchen.

“Mija, I’m not deaf, you don’t have to yell so loud.”

“Sorry, I wasn’t sure how well you heard me over the boiling water.” Luz smiled at her innocently, gesturing towards the water boiler. “I made soup for lunch, I hope that’s okay.”

Camila smiled at her daughter in delight and rumpled Luz’s hair.

“Of course. It smells wonderful.”

They’d been doing it this way for a while. 

When Camila was home first, she cooked. When her daughter was, Luz cooked.

The girl liked to think she was a decent enough cook—not  _perfect,_ but good enough to serve it to guests without feeling bad about it.

“Can you go get Amity? She’s still upstairs trying to reach her parents.”

Camila raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms.

“She still hasn’t reached them?” Luz shook her head. Camila cocked her head. “They’re... not very reliable, huh?”

That their daughter should have been home the day before, and they hadn’t even bothered finding out where she was when she hadn’t shown up at home was ridiculous. 

Camila hadn’t even met these people yet, and she already didn’t think very highly of them.

Luz sighed.

“You can say that again. Amity sometimes spent hours on her phone trying to reach them back at camp, but to no avail. They’re always...  _very busy with work.”_

Camila shook her head uncomprehendingly. It wasn’t that she didn’t understand working much and not being able to spend an endless amount of time with one’s daughter—which was something she deeply regretted, but wasn’t able to change—but this was on a whole different level.

Had Luz not returned when she was supposed to, Camila would have called her immediately, and if she hadn’t been able to reach her, she would have driven back to camp herself and turned the whole place upside down in order to find her.

“Of course I’ll go get her so she can eat with us.”

When Camila walked up the stairs, it didn’t take long for her to realize that something was off. She could hear voices coming from her daughter’s room—one of them male and two of them female, and the ones that weren’t Amity’s sounded furious while Amity herself sounded completely broken.

“Mom, dad, I-”

Amity’s voice cracked.

**“Don’t you dare call us that!”** the male voice shouted.

Camila winced at the harshness of the words and the tone. She hadn’t meant to listen in on the phone call... but it was loud and now she was starting to get worried. 

Whatever this was about, it didn’t sound good.

Apparently Amity had finally reached her parents—but Camila was starting to feel like it might have been better if she hadn’t.

“You’re a disgrace to the family name,” the female voice continued, sounding just as harsh as the male one. “You should be ashamed of yourself. **_I refuse to consider a useless, worthless disappointment like you my daughter.”_**

There was a short pause, the only thing Camila could still hear being Amity’s broken sobs.

It was the male voice that broke the silence again.

_** “Don’t you dare show your face at our doorstep ever again!” ** _

Then the room went quiet again, and this time, it remained that way.

A few seconds later, Amity glanced up to notice Camila standing in the door frame, glancing at her with a sympathetic look on her face.

“...oh, hi Ms. Noceda.” 

The green-haired girl couldn’t even manage a half-smile as she looked up at Luz’s mom and wiped a few tears from her eyes, her voice shaking almost as much as her body was.

Camila gave her an apologetic look. She forced herself not to show how angry she was at the people that had just said all these things to Amity—unforgivable things, that nobody, no matter the circumstances, was ever allowed to say to their own child. 

But anger wouldn’t help Amity right now. She needed sympathy more than anything.

“I really didn’t mean to listen to your phone call, it’s just...”

So their plan had worked, at least. But Amity felt too sick to even be the slightest bit happy about it.

“I know. It’s not your fault. They get very loud when they’re mad at me.” Amity started sobbing even harder. She’d expected a bad blow. She’d expected this to hurt. ‘ _But not like this.’ _

“If there’s anything I can do, just say the word and I will, okay?”

Camila refrained from asking what this had been about. Amity needed support right now... not someone that forced her to explain in-depth what had caused her parents to say all these words to her.

“C-could you please go get Luz?”

Amity didn’t care about anything else anymore. Not about their plan, not about whether or not she’d have to sleep in that stupid cabin in the woods... right now, all she wanted was for Luz to hold her before she fell apart completely.

“Of course.”

After her mom had come back downstairs, Luz rushed into her room as fast as she could. She didn’t know what exactly it was, but something about the way Camila had told her that something had happened and that Amity needed her—something about the look in her eyes when she’d said it—had made Luz’s blood run cold.

If her mom believed their lie this much... she had a really bad feeling about this.

Luz pushed the door to her room open.

“Amit-” It took one look at her friend for Luz to know that Amity wasn’t faking anything. She was shaking and crying and looked downright sick, her face completely ashen. “Oh my god, what happened?!” Luz sat down on the bed next to her and pulled her friend into a tight hug. “I’m right here. Whatever it is, it’s going to be okay.”

Amity just sobbed into her friend’s chest and shook her head as she clung to Luz.

“No, Luz. It won’t be. Nothing’s going to be okay...”

She still couldn’t stop shaking, even her hands desperately clinging to Luz’s back wasn’t helping her calm down.

Luz felt her heart shatter to pieces, and for a few seconds she forgot how to breathe. Seeing Amity this broken was too much for her. 

This wasn’t like the way Amity had cried the day before. Her breaking down the way she had had been scary enough, but this... 

Luz had never seen her friend this upset before. She could feel Amity crumble to pieces in her arms.

What could the twins have said to her that had hurt her  _this_ badly?

“What happened?”

Luz’s voice was soft and sweet and full of worry.

But Amity couldn’t bring herself to say even a single word. She just started sobbing even louder, burying her head in Luz’s chest.

“Can I...?” 

Camila asked softly. 

Amity nodded. 

The less she had to speak right now, the better... even though she wasn’t really upset for the reason her friend’s mother thought she was. She just wanted to get this whole stupid act over with so she could curl up into a ball and cry herself to sleep.

“Her parents kicked her out.”

“Amity, I’m so sorry...” Luz hugged her friend even tighter. Eventually, she looked back up at her mother, with maybe the most desperate look on her face Camila had ever seen on her daughter. Camila already knew what Luz was about to ask before her daughter even opened her mouth. “...mami, can she stay here for a bit? Please?”

“Luz, we can’t just...”

It wasn’t that Camila didn’t  _want_ to help Amity... but things weren’t that easy.

“It’s okay, Luz. I’ll figure something out. I don’t want to be a burden to you guys.”

That was too much. The soft, shaking voice along with everything she’d just overheard was all that was required for Camila to immediately change her mind. 

“No. Amity, you’re  **not** a burden. It’s okay. You can stay for now.” Nobody deserved to be treated by their parents the way this girl had just been... and with how much she meant to Luz, even if Camila hadn’t been the kind, caring woman she was, she would have let her stay, because if she hadn’t, the damage not helping Amity out right now would have caused to her relationship with her daughter wasn’t worth the risk. They’d have to find a different solution eventually... but at least for a bit, Amity could stay with them. “There’s going to be a bunch of legal issues we’ll have to take care of if you stay here temporarily—especially since your papers are missing. But we’ll manage.”

“...really?” Luz hugged her mom, relief washing over her. As bad as this whole situation was, as much as her heart hurt at seeing Amity cry  and _not knowing why and not being able to help..._ at least it had worked. Amity would get to stay with them, and she didn’t have to hide her in the attic or something. Now she could put most of her focus for the next couple of weeks into making her friend feel better about whatever it was that her siblings had told her that had hurt her so badly.   
“You’re the best.”

Amity looked up at Camila, her teary eyes full of gratitude.

“I’m not going to cause you even the slightest bit of trouble, Ms. Noceda. I promise.”

Camila smiled and shook her head.

“That’s sweet, but... I won’t hold you to that. Mistakes are human.”

Luz had caused her mother plenty of trouble in the past, but that didn’t mean anything she’d done wrong had ever made Camila love her less... or that anything she would still do wrong in the future ever could.

“Luz, I’m going to go downstairs and make a few phone calls, okay? I’m going to enroll Amity at your school. I refuse to let this take away her future.”

These words hurt Amity more than they helped her—both because the reality of the situation was that there was  **nothing** Camila could do about the girl’s messed up future... and because the kindness and lack of judgement in her voice made Amity question how it was possible that it felt like this woman she barely knew cared about her more than her own parents ever had.

Amity spent the next few hours on the bed, unable to pick herself up off the mattress, and she rarely ever stopped crying. 

Luz didn’t leave her side, not even for a single minute. She just sat with her in silence for a long time, squeezing Amity’s hand to remind her she was there and always making sure she was as comfortable as possible.

Eventually, Amity managed to say out loud through her sobs what her sister had said to her.

Luz just held her and listened while she did, and despite Amity telling her that she’d  _asked_ Emira to make her cry, Luz couldn’t help but get angry—because Emira had known exactly how much this would hurt Amity... and still said all those things to her, in the absolute worst way possible.

“You know your parents won’t really stop loving you just because you get a couple bad grades, right?” Luz said reassuringly after her friend had finished telling her what had happened.

Amity started sobbing even louder.

“Believe me, they will.”

Luz’s blood ran cold. Amity’s voice was shaking so badly, she sounded so upset,  _so broken, _ but at the same time so, so incredibly certain that it made Luz feel sick.

“...you’re not serious,” she mumbled in disbelief.

It scared Luz how sure she was that Amity was actually indeed serious from the way she’d spoken. 

The green-haired witch buried her head in Luz’s chest, trembling like a leaf.

“They’re going to hate me, Luz... they’re going to actually throw me out.”

Her voice was barely above a broken whisper.

Luz wasn’t a very violent person, but right now, the pure terror in Amity’s voice made her angry beyond words, and she was about ready to punch Amity’s parents through a wall as soon as she had the opportunity to do so.

_What had they done to their daughter that made her so scared of them? **What had to be wrong with a person to care more about their child’s grades than her well-being?**_

The more Luz heard about Amity’s parents, the more determined she became about making sure that Amity never had to go back to Blight Manor once they returned to the Boiling Isles. 

“Well, forget them, then! Amity, you’re incredible. If they don’t see that, that’s their mistake, not yours. You have so many things you should be proud of—way more than some grades or a  _‘top student’_ -badge. You’re smart, and brave, and beautiful, and you have a kind heart, despite being raised by people that so obviously don’t share that quality. You’re ready to face your fears and grow past your mistakes for the people you love. That’s stronger, braver, than most people are. And you’re funny and supportive and just in general the greatest person I’ve ever had the honor to meet, let alone be friends with. Seeing you is all I need to brighten up my day. I’ve never met anyone like you, Amity. Don’t let your stupid, blind, horrible parents define what makes you special. You’re special because you’re  _you._ That’s all you ever need to be.” Amity lifted her head a little and pulled Luz even closer. She was still too shaken up to manage even the smallest smile... but titan, she wasn’t even sure how it was possible to love someone as much as she loved Luz right now.

“Luz, I... Thank you. For everything.”

Luz hugged her back gently, still careful not to touch the area of the injury.

“Anytime.”

And then they went back to sitting in silence, Amity’s heart still heavy, but she was able to breathe a little easier now.

Some time later, Camila came in to bring them the soup that Luz had made which she’d heated up.

“I thought you two might be hungry.”

Luz looked up and smiled weakly at her.

“Thanks, mom.” She took the tray from her mom and put it down on the bedside table. Amity didn’t even lift her head, but she did make a noise of silent complaint when Luz let go of her. “I don’t think we’ll be coming back downstairs today.”

Camila gave them a sympathetic smile, glancing worriedly at the upset green-haired girl as she banished the memory of herself and her own inconsolable daughter in this very same room so many years ago into the back of her mind.

“That’s okay. Amity can take all the time she needs. If there’s anything I can do for you...”

“Actually...” Luz bit her lip. She felt guilty even asking what she was about to, but she didn’t really have much of a choice. She had to somehow be functional enough to go back to school the next day, after all. “I really need to take a shower, but I don’t want to leave Amity alone in my room. Can... can you stay with her for a couple of minutes? I’ll be quick, I promise. I‘ll eat afterwards.“

Camila hesitated a bit. 

“Would you be alright with that, Amity?”

She didn’t want to do anything their visitor—or, well, not quite visitor anymore—wasn’t comfortable with. She could imagine that crying in front of someone that was basically still a stranger to her was about the last thing she wanted to do right now.

After a short moment of hesitation, Amity nodded.

“Okay. In that case, I’ll stay.”

When Luz had left the room, Camila took her daughter’s desk chair to sit down next to the bed in order to not invade Amity’s personal space too much.

“Is that okay?”

Amity lifted her head off the pillow to face Luz’s mom and muttered a soft _“thank you.”_

The warmth and kindness in Camila’s eyes were the same Amity always saw in Luz’s.

  
  


When Luz came back into her room about ten minutes later, hair dried and dressed in her pajamas, Amity had reached for Camila’s hand, and Camila was humming the same song she’d always sung to Luz when her daughter had been upset when she was little.

There was a strange peacefulness to the scene, and for a moment, Luz didn’t dare interrupt it.

Luz now knew that Amity didn’t have parents that behaved like ones back home. Maybe what she needed most right now was a parent that did, even if it wasn’t her own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you so much for reading, feedback is super appreciated as always!  
> I’m still blown away because of how far this story has come – so many comments, and over 2.5k kudos. This is insane, and every single one of you guys motivates me so, so much, so once again, massive, massive thank you.
> 
> Also, once again shoutout to GoG_Kudos, who helped me make the scene where Amity breaks down even meaner by adding the idea with Lilith ^^
> 
> I’m going to be dead at work tomorrow – or, well, today, since it’s past twelve where I live, whoops XD  
> But ugh, I wanted to finish this chapter today, so I did, who needs sleep anyway?
> 
> See you guys very, very soon, please check the end note below for the update schedule!


	8. Last Straw

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CONTENT WARNING
> 
> This chapter contains child abuse – mental and at one point also physical –, which may be triggering to some readers.  
> It’s non-graphic, but I think it still should have a trigger warning for anyone that might be sensitive to this topic.  
> Feel free to skip this chapter.  
> I summarized what happens in the Author’s Note at the end of the chapter for anyone that chooses to skip.  
> I used two lines to separate the scene with the abuse theme from the rest of the chapter – one above and one beneath it, in case someone wants to skip the scene itself but still read the rest of the chapter. However, keep in mind that the events influence the characters, and will therefore still be relevant to this chapter especially, even after the scene itself is over.
> 
> Whatever you do, please put your mental health first.  
> A fanfiction, no matter how much you enjoy it, isn’t worth unnecessarily exposing yourself to triggers.
> 
> This chapter is also the reason why I changed the rating to “Teen and up audiences”.  
> The majority of the story after this is still rated G, however.

[Since I know some people tend to default-skip the note at the beginning without reading, I’ll say it again here before we get into the chapter: please read the content warning at the beginning before you start reading.]

When the glass turned black again, Emira’s shaking hands let go of the small mirror she’d been holding. She watched it drop to the floor and shatter to pieces without even trying to catch it before it did.

Then she started sobbing.

It was the second time Emira had broken down today, and this time, she was sure she would never recover. 

She hadn’t  _meant_ to break Amity the way she had, but now she couldn’t take back what she’d said – and the worst thing about this was that the things she’d told her were far from the worst things she  _could have said. _

Emira hadn’t mentioned that it was Lilith who was responsible for destroying the portal and for Amity’s injury, or that the Emperor wanted Luz dead, or that Amity would probably be stuck in the human realm for multiple years rather than just a few weeks. Compared to those things, what Emira  _had_ told her sister was basically harmless, and she didn’t even want to imagine the fallout of Amity eventually learning the truth about all of that if the least bad news broke her  _this badly_.

Her twin brother was sitting next to her and didn’t know how to help her.  _Titan, he didn’t even know how to help himself_ – despite the fact that Luz and Amity had agreed to the idea of the twins pretending to be their parents and throwing their _‘_ _daughter_ _’_ out, he felt awful about all the mean things he’d said to Amity. And even though he knew that the main reason why his little sister had cried had been Emira’s words – who had definitely taken it way too far with what she’d said and especially with  _how she’d said it_ –, he couldn’t help but still feel responsible for and guilty about making Amity upset.

There was a part of him that wanted to yell at Emira for what she’d said to Amity, despite knowing just how much it would hurt her if he did... but he wasn’t the type to lash out at his twin in a desperate attempt to lessen his own feeling of guilt by putting it all on her.

He’d just have felt worse afterwards.

_ ‘I’d never be able to look either of my sisters in the eyes again if I made one of them cry on purpose. I don’t know how she managed to finish the call before breaking down.’ _

They were sitting on the couch in their room – the room they still shared, even after all these years, despite the fact that the mansion had more than enough rooms for them to have separate ones, because their mother insisted that they did... just like she insisted on the matching outfits.

It was as if the moment the twins had chosen to stick together against their parents as children, their mother had decided to treat them as if they were  _actually the same person,_ refusing to let them develop a normal sense of individuality, and only singling one of them out when she decided who she wanted to yell at for getting the worse grade.

Their parents weren’t home yet, but would be soon enough... and then it was time for the part of the evening the two of them had been dreading ever since King had suggested it – telling their parents the truth and asking them to find a way to help Amity.

People always said it couldn’t hurt to try... but the rising feeling of dread in Edric’s chest made him feel a lot less certain about that.

For a really long time, the twins just sat there, neither of them moving or saying a word, both just trying to cope with what had happened by themselves while silently vowing to never, ever repeat it, no matter the circumstances.

Then they heard the heavy front doors open and close again, and they were forced to pull themselves together.

* * *

The twins told their parents what had happened as vaguely as they possibly could. Of course neither of them mentioned the reason Amity had gone after Luz, or that they were currently working on creating a new portal with Eda – for Eda’s safety and their own, she’d barely been present in the story at all.

“You two have connections to Belos, don’t you? You have to pull some strings so we can get Amity back,” Emira insisted after they finished.

Her desperate gaze met her father’s for the first time since the twins had begun talking about what had happened... and she found that his expression was still the same cold, emotionless smile it had been when they’d finished dinner.

The twins had barely touched their food, but had waited until their parents had finished eating and then asked them to stay at the table with them for a bit because they had something important to talk about. 

Up until now, Alador and Odalia had just listened without saying a word. Now, they exchanged a look and shook their heads before looking back at their children.

“We were already informed of that... unfortunate development,” Alador said calmly.

“What do you mean you were already-” Edric started, but his mother interrupted him with a cold voice.

“Belos informed us of yesterday’s events early this morning, to ensure our loyalty still lies in the right place. Which, of course, it does.”

Alador crossed his arms and looked at the twins sternly.

“So you knew about what happened and chose to lie to us about your sister’s absence yesterday.”

His children stared at him in disbelief.

“Th-that’s it?! That’s what you’re taking from all the things we just told you? Are you serious?!  **Amity could be in severe danger, and you’re lecturing us about nonsense like that?!”**

Edric couldn’t believe what he was hearing. 

Their father couldn’t be serious.

“She’s been spending too much time with the human girl lately anyway. I had a feeling this wouldn’t end well.” Odalia shrugged. It was scary just how calm she was while imagining she might never see one of her children again. It almost sounded like she didn’t care at all. “Amity is old enough to live with the consequences of her own actions.”

“AMITY IS FOURTEEN! SHE’S BASICALLY STILL A CHILD!” Emira felt sick. She wanted to strangle both of them.  _** “What is wrong with you?!” ** _

“Amity made a decision,” their father replied coldly. “Since she was stupid enough to follow the human, she has no one but herself to blame.”

It wasn’t like the twins had really expected this to work – they knew their parents well enough by now to be able to tell just how much they were willing to sacrifice for keeping their good standing with the Emperor... but they’d at least expected some kind of sympathy. Even grief, maybe. 

But instead, their parents didn’t seem to care at all. They were completely apathetic.

“It’s an... unfortunate waste of talent, but at least it won’t be completely in vain. Lilith is going to choose one of you to take Amity’s place as her student.” Odalia smiled at her children in a way that gave the twins chills. “We will not be bothering the Emperor with this. Now, if you’re done wasting our time with information that we’re already aware of, I still have some work to take care of that I need to get back to.”

“I’VE HAD IT WITH YOU TWO!” Edric lost it. He got up and slammed both of his fists into the table. The noise got his parents’ attention back, at least. “IS THAT ALL YOU CARE ABOUT?! I CAN’T BELIEVE YOU!” He bit his lower lip, struggling to continue as a very harsh truth that he’d been denying up until now finally settled in his mind. “You know, I always wanted to believe that deep down, in your own, messed up way, you _did_ love us – that you just pushed us to the breaking point time and again because you wanted us to succeed so much. But that’s not it at all, is it? This was always just about your stupid social standing!” He paused, tears forming in his eyes as he stared directly at his parents. His voice was full of pain when he continued speaking. “You never really cared about any of us, and you never will.  _All you care about is the stupid family name and making yourself look good in public, even if it makes you and your kids miserable! **Apparently even if it gets one of us killed!”**_

“HOW DARE YOU!” 

Edric didn’t flinch. 

Both of his parents were visibly furious, but he refused to back down when his mother yelled at him, continuing to stare her down even when she stepped closer to him with pure rage in her eyes, despite the fact that she was even more intimidating right now than he’d possibly ever seen her.

_** “Right, how dare I speak my mind and call you out on your shitty behavior!  Titan, what an awful son I am!” ** _

Poison filled his every word, and it made his parents even angrier.

He didn’t care anymore.

His mother could yell at him all she wanted. He refused to let that scare him out of speaking the truth any longer. 

He’d tolerated his parents behavior way longer than he should have. 

That was over now.

...but Odalia didn’t yell at him again.

Instead, she grabbed him by the collar, and then a sharp pain shot through his cheek and the world stopped spinning.

Edric staggered backwards with horror in his eyes. 

His determination washed away in an instant. He sank to the floor against the wall, and his hand went up to his throbbing cheek. 

His mouth was completely dry from the shock. He could feel fresh tears burning in the corner of his eyes.

_ “M-mom?” _

His voice was barely above a shaking, thunderstruck whisper. 

It sounded like that of a toddler that had just seen a parent get mad at them for the first time and was now afraid that they wouldn’t love them anymore. 

Except Edric wasn’t a child anymore. He was almost an adult. 

But he looked up at his mother with the same desperate eyes of a child.

“Edric!”

Emira immediately kneeled down beside her brother. She couldn’t believe what had just happened.

Edric didn’t even react to her voice. He just kept staring blankly in complete disbelief.

It didn’t even hurt that much – at least not physically –, but the tears just kept coming and he was unable to move.

Emira squeezed his shoulder gently, then got back up and placed herself protectively in between her brother and her parents, glaring at them with fire in her eyes.

She had never been this angry in her entire life.

**“I HATE YOU!”** Every fiber of her being wanted her to lunge herself at Odalia. Instead, she let out a manic laughter. _“And here I thought it ended at the mental abuse!_ _**Titan, how fucking dumb and naive was I?!” ** _

Her mother growled. 

** “You insolent, ungrateful brat! After everything we’ve done for you-” **

Emira didn’t even let her finish. She was done smiling, playing house and caring even the slightest bit about what she was  _**supposed**_ to say.

“And that would be what, exactly,  _**aside from using us as nice little puppets in your stupid game for power and haunting our nightmares?!”**_

She was done with her parents altogether.

“Emira, don’t speak to your mother like that.” 

Her father’s poor attempt to be what his distorted image of reasonable was just made the teen even angrier. 

Emira was tired. 

Tired of her father’s fake smile and the threat he so poorly hid beneath it. Tired of her mother’s harsh words. Tired of watching her brother cry himself to sleep after their parents had called him stupid again. Tired of being yelled at, and tired of being unable to make friends out of fear that her parents would scare them away again.

And most of all, she was tired of holding back the feelings she had bottled up for so long. 

Her father continued calmly, “don’t you think you’re taking it a bit too far, young lady?”

Emira was seething with rage. 

And this time, she didn’t swallow her feelings to slowly let them eat her up.

This time, she took a deep breath and then freed all her bottled up anger from the metaphorical vessel she’d been keeping it in.

“A bit far?!  **I’LL SHOW YOU A BIT FAR!”**

And then, she went completely berserk.

First, she grabbed the edge of the tablecloth and pulled so hard that it sent every single plate flying off the table.

They clattered to the floor and shattered into a million pieces.

Her mother stared at the shards in horror, her mouth agape.

“WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?!”

Emira glared at her parents.

“Oh, so hitting us is fine, _**BUT**_ _**TITAN FORBID I BREAK A BIT OF TABLEWARE!” ** _

She growled, magic starting to pulse through every inch of her body, and without thinking much about what she wanted to do, she let her instincts take control. The spell circle she drew ended up being way bigger than she had intended, resulting in the creation of a total of four illusions of herself. 

When she was combining magic with her brother, this wouldn’t have been surprising, but she’d never created more than two or three illusions when she did it by herself... and even then, it had always taken her a lot of effort to do so. 

This was almost too easy.

It surprised her how powerful she felt – how much relief she felt now that her feelings were all out in the open. She hadn’t felt this in control of a situation in several years... and it felt amazing.

All the illusions were staring at her parents with the same amount of pure rage that she was.

Her mother stared at her, and for a moment she was frozen in shock.

Alador raised his hands defensively in an attempt to get through to his oldest child.

“Emira, you need to calm down. You don’t know what you’re doing.”

She let out a dry laughter.

“ME?! I KNOW EXACTLY WHAT I’M DOING! IN FACT, I SHOULD HAVE DONE THIS  _**AGES**_ AGO!”

The five versions of her looked at each other and nodded, then lifted up the heavy dining room table and sent it flying. 

The wood and the wall both gave an awful crack when the table smashed into it.

Then, two of them pushed over the cupboard, and whatever had been inside it made a splintering noise when it collided with the floor.

Alador gritted his teeth.

“I didn’t want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice.” 

He drew a spell circle into the air, and an abomination took form right next to Emira – the real one, not one of the illusions. Apparently he’d kept an eye on the person that had created the spell circle, even among the chaos. 

Then, another abomination raised from the ground. They grabbed the teen by both wrists and held her in place, their hold getting stronger the more she struggled against it.

She could feel herself slowly being overtaken by panic when suddenly, one of the abominations released her hand from its grip.

“KEEP YOUR ABOMINATIONS AWAY FROM MY SISTER YOU JERK!”

Edric was standing on his feet again. He was in tears, still in shock and still reeling from what had just happened, but he’d be damned if he let his parents harm his sister. 

Since he couldn’t keep the tears from blinding him long enough to form an even slightly round spell circle, he reverted to the very un-magic way of smashing a chair through one of his father’s creations. It dissolved back into purple goo.

With her right arm free, Emira took care of the remaining abomination with her magic.

“Is that all?!”

Meanwhile, without her even attempting to control them, the illusions she’d created of herself had grabbed hold of both her parents the same way she’d just been captured. 

It took Emira a moment to understand what had happened.

Her illusions had somehow mirrored the behavior of Alador’s abominations.

She wasn’t sure how that was even possible – how much magic had she used? 

Usually, her illusions only had a fraction of her own strength, sometimes possibly the same amount... but apparently, these were a lot stronger than she was, or they wouldn’t have been able to overwhelm her parents like that, even with them being too focused on the twins and basically ignoring the illusions since they appeared to be minor threats in comparison to the real teens.

The illusions didn’t know what it felt like to be afraid of something, so whatever her parents could have said to shake Emira’s concentration... it didn’t faze these versions of her.

Her mother struggled against their hold, shrieking.

“Emira, stop this nonsense right this instance, or I’ll-”

She trailed off as her oldest child stepped closer, looking directly at her in a way that made Odalia back away as much as her captors allowed her to.

Her daughter stared her down, unbridled rage filling her eyes when she drew another circle into the air, this one creating a large blue fist that hovered over all of their heads.

“Or you’ll  _what,_ **mother?** **”** Emira’s voice was filled with poison, and she spit out the last word like it was an insult. _“_ _Hit me like you did my brother?!”_

“I-”

Her father was starting to flinch as well.

“Emira-”

The teen stepped closer to her parents, the magic fist aimed right at her mother...

“Doesn’t feel great when you’re not the powerful one, does it?” 

Her voice was icy, but surprisingly calm. “Fortunately for you...” The fist disappeared, and Emira channelled all her remaining energy into one more spell that just knocked both of her parents out cold without harming them. “I didn’t turn out very much like you.”

Her illusions vanished into thin air. 

She stared coldly at the two unconscious adults for a moment.

Despite everything they’d done to her and her siblings over the last couple of years... she refused to harm them when they had no means to defend themselves.

The property damage was the one thing— _and_ _ Titan, had that felt amazing—_but if she’d hurt them out of pure maliciousness rather than self defense, she would have been no better than they were.

And she refused to let them turn her into someone she wasn’t.

Her heart was still hammering out of her chest for a while, her fear now mixing with just the slightest bit of relief at the fact that it was over for now.

Then, Emira’s rage began to fade, and she started feeling sick. 

The more the adrenaline subsided, the worse she started to feel the effects of the amount of magic she’d used.

She’d underestimated how much of a toll using so much magic would take on her – or, rather, she hadn’t even thought about it, because she hadn’t been thinking at all.

She felt drained, almost hollow inside, and for the first time in her life, when she reached for her magic, she couldn’t feel it. 

It scared her.

The world became all blurry, and if it hadn’t been for her brother catching her, she’d probably have fallen over and passed out.

Edric helped his sister sit down carefully.

“I’ve got you. I’ve got you...” He was still shaking, everything that had just happened replaying in his head over and over and over again. He couldn’t even begin to process all that... it felt too much like a nightmare to be real, and yet, the burning sensation in his cheek was a painful reminder that he hadn’t been dreaming. “How are you feeling?”

Emira was pretty sure the answer to that question wasn’t  _‘good’_ ,  but that was as much as she was able to tell right now.

“Should- shouldn’t  _I_ be asking  _you_ that?”

Edric lowered his head.

“Angry. Hurt. ...scared,” he mumbled numbly.

Emira couldn’t even look at her brother, too afraid of seeing the pain in his eyes... but she reached for his hand before replying “me too, Ed,” with a shaking voice.

At least their parents couldn’t hurt them anymore as long as they were unconscious.

She wasn’t planning on sticking around long enough to find out how livid they would be when they woke up, and one look at her brother was enough to be certain he was thinking the same thing.

They’d tolerated their parents increasingly worsening behavior for way too long.

What had happened today was the last straw.

Finally, Edric said out loud what they’d both been thinking.

“Let’s get out of here. For good.”

* * *

A really, really large part of Edric wanted to just take a cloak and run as far away from this place as possible immediately. 

Every additional second they had to spend at Blight Manor filled both of the twins with fear and dread, but just running away entirely without a plan wasn’t really an option... so they stayed at the house a bit longer than they would have liked to pack some of their belongings into the magic bags they owned that looked small on the outside but actually had an almost infinite amount of space on the inside.

They took the bare necessities, on top of any snails they could find – neither of them had ever had to worry about money before, but that was about to change drastically –, and the very few things of emotional value that they owned.

In addition to their own things, Edric also ended up going into Amity’s room when they were done, allowing his twin to close her eyes for a moment while he packed anything that looked like it could be important to their little sister – her jewelry box, a couple of the books she liked that she kept here rather than in the library, and also the school stuff and her training wand, which she would only need in case they managed to get her back to the Boiling Isles a lot sooner than Eda had predicted.

Their top priority right now was to do anything it took to get their little sister back. That their blood relatives wouldn’t help them changed nothing about that.

Neither of them took the chance to check, but most likely, the two adults were still passed out on the floor when they left the place they teens had called their home for as long as they’d lived – the place that, despite all their years spent there, had never truly been ‘ _ home _ ’ at all.

It was almost pitch-black outside when they exited the manor, both of them enveloped in warm, gray cloaks that they desperately needed to protect themselves from the cold air of the night.

The sky was dark and it looked like it would rain – hopefully it wouldn’t, especially since Emira was pretty sure she was too exhausted to cast even the smallest protection spell after all the magic she’d just used, and Edric wasn’t sure if he was up for it either... but even if it  _did_ rain, all things considered, they were probably safer out here in the boiling rain than they would have been if they’d stayed at the manor.

The twins took one more look at the large building and its’ cold, thick walls, then looked at each other and nodded with fresh determination.

No turning back now.

Emira had shouldered her own as well as Amity’s bag, while Edric was only carrying his own.

“You sure you don’t want me to take your bag as well?”

Since they were magic, they were basically weightless, so it wasn’t really a big deal that she was carrying two, and she wouldn’t have minded carrying a third.

“It’s okay, really. My cheek doesn’t even hurt that much. I’m not made of glass. I’ll be fine.”

Physically, at least, he would be.

Eventually, the burning sensation would fade, and even if he ended up having a bruise, that would heal sooner or later as well.

Mentally, he was pretty sure the past night was etched into both of their souls forever.

They walked most of the way in silence, both of them lost in their thoughts and unable to shake everything that had just happened, but forcing themselves forward because they had to – the longer they stayed out here, the higher the chances they’d end up getting caught in the rain.

Their future was full of questions and uncertainties now. 

It was scary... but also weirdly freeing. 

Up until now, their parents had led them along a predetermined path that they’d picked out for all of their children. Sure, the twins had strayed from it more often than the two adults would have liked... but in the end, their parents had always managed to force them back onto the path.

But not this time.

The new path they were taking was one they would have to find by themselves, full of unexpected twists and turns and crossroads... but for maybe the first time in their life, they were somewhat in control of their future instead of having it chosen for them against their will.

And among all the new possibilities that came with these new-found uncertainties, there was just one thing both of them were certain about. 

Neither of them would set a single foot into Blight Manor ever again.

[mynamejers](https://mynamejers.tumblr.com/)   
  


“This better be important or whoever woke me this late is going to regret it bitterly,” Eda grumbled sleepily as Hooty woke her up with an overly thrilled “we have visitoooors” in the middle of the night.

It had been difficult enough for her to fall asleep at all, which made her all the less thrilled to be awoken like this after she’d barely gotten any sleep.

She rubbed her eyes and climbed out of her nest, yawning.

She was still half asleep when she got downstairs and opened the door – and then suddenly very, very awake when she saw the Blight twins standing at her doorstep.

“...what are you doing here?”

“Hi Eda.” 

Edric looked at her with a tired, broken smile and pulled the cloak a little tighter around him. It was freezing out here, although that wasn’t the only reason he was shaking.

The adult looked both of them up and down and concluded that, one, they both didn’t look very good, and two, this definitely counted as important.

“Geez, you two look terrible.” Eda’s look softened. “Come on in.”

“Thank you.”

Emira didn’t even manage a fake smile when she stepped inside. She put the bags down on the floor and pretty much collapsed onto the couch that was closer to the door, and from that moment on, would have been unable to get back up again even if she’d wanted to.

Her body had been rebelling against her all the way here, and while she’d just barely managed not to pass out yet, her exhaustion now finally caught up to her.

Edric stood in the middle of the living room a bit awkwardly. He put the bag he was holding next to the other two on the floor, but still didn’t sit down afterwards.

Eda closed the door behind them and looked at her guests worriedly.

Whatever had happened, it had to be severe if the twins had risked getting caught in the rain because of it – thankfully, they hadn’t been, but the thunder outside made it clear that it had been a little too close for comfort.

Because of how cloudy it had been, Eda had already done a rain protection spell on the house in the evening, right before she’d gone to sleep, so they were safe in here. 

Before the owl lady could decide what she wanted to say to them, Emira spoke up again.

“Can we... can we stay here for a bit? Just for a couple of days?”

Eda nodded without hesitating.

“Sure. It was getting a little quiet without Luz around anyway.” Having them around was convenient for working on the portal, but more importantly, she wasn’t about to turn down someone who needed her help. It was a blessing and a curse that by now, whenever someone asked her for help, she heard Luz quote some dramatic, terribly written scene from one of her Azura books, about how heroes did the right thing or some nonsense... and the kid was really starting to rub off on her. “Can I get you anything? Something to eat, some apple blood or-”

Edric bit his lip and faced the floor.

“Could I have something for my cheek?”

Eda nodded. The vague assumption she had about how he’d gotten the small bruise on his cheek made her stomach twist.

“Of course. I’ve never been that great with healing magic, but you can have some ice.” She drew a small spell circle and handed him some ice wrapped in a piece of fabric a moment later. “And since that’s something I’ve had to tell Luz before – just hold it against your cheek. Don’t lick it. Remember to take it off the injury every now and again, because keeping it there for too long can be harmful, too.”

He nodded and took the ice from her with a somber expression, muttering a silent “got it” before he sat down on the empty couch and held the fabric against his cheek in silence.

It didn’t feel very good, but hopefully, it would still help.

Eda looked at the teens on her two separate couches with an uncertain expression.

She really, really wanted to help them, but she didn’t know how to.

“Do you kids want to... talk, or something?”

Edric was about to say something when Emira shook her head.

“We actually came here partly because we hoped you wouldn’t ask,” she mumbled quietly. “Can you please just... cast a sleep spell on me?”

Emira looked like she was about to conk out any moment either way, but the desperation in her voice was enough for Eda to hear the actual meaning of _‘I don’t want to dream’_ in the girl’s words, even as tired as she was.

“Sure. You might want to change into something more comfortable, though.”

Emira shook her head. She didn’t have it in her to do anything other than what she absolutely had to, and changing wasn’t on that list. 

The adrenaline was entirely gone now, and all that remained were anger and sadness and a strong, painful feeling of emptiness that swallowed her whole. 

She just wanted to curl up into a ball and cry for the next several hours, but she knew if she did, her brother would try to comfort her again, and the last thing  he needed right now, as upset as he was and after everything that he’d just been through, was to be an emotional crutch for anyone else. 

The least she could do for Edric right now – and, as ashamed as that made her, the  _only_ thing she thought herself capable of doing at the moment –, was to spare him the additional weight of her leaning on him when he was the one that so desperately needed someone to lean on.

_ ‘I’m weak and a coward and a bad sister.’ _

Emira still couldn’t stop thinking about Amity’s broken sobs... but now they were joined by Edric’s desperate voice and the burning pain in her own lower arms and wrists, and the weight on her shoulders was so heavy it threatened to crush her right then and there.

She’d used the last of her strength to put up her facade again, so her face didn’t betray any of these feelings. 

Her shaking voice, however, probably would have... which was why she avoided speaking any more than she had to when she pulled her blanket and pillow out of her bag and used them to make the couch a little more comfortable for herself.

She wasn’t cold anymore, but her body still wouldn’t stop shaking.

“Now? Please?”

Her voice was weak, and she was on the brink of breaking down again when suddenly, her whole body went numb and all thoughts vanished from her head, leaving it completely empty except for her exhaustion.

Her breathing steadied when the warm, comforting darkness embraced her.

“What about you?” Eda asked Edric as soon as she was sure Emira was sound asleep.

He hesitated for a moment. Forgetting about everything for a few hours seemed like a nice option, but he was too restless to even try and think about sleep, so he shook his head.

“Thanks, but... I think I’ll stay up a bit longer. Don’t let me keep you up, though. It’s more than enough that you’re letting us stay here in the first place.”

Eda wasn’t sure she if liked the thought of leaving him alone right now.

“You sure?”

He nodded.

“Yeah. Please go back to sleep.” She hesitated to leave him, but he insisted. He felt guilty enough for waking her in the first place. He didn’t want to keep her up all night. And it didn’t matter if he ended up getting no sleep at all... at least then, he’d be able to watch over Emira. Someone had to, after all. She’d been braver today than he could ever be.  _‘Thank you for saving me.’_

He wasn’t sure if he’d have been able to leave if it hadn’t been for his sister. 

The courage she’d shown standing up to their parents was what had given him the strength to be brave as well.

He waited until Eda had gone up the stairs to take what he  _thought_ was his bag to find something to distract himself with.

It wasn’t until he saw the Otabin book inside that he realized he’d grabbed the wrong one... but he decided that reading was as good a distraction as any, and so he took out Amity’s favorite children’s book and started reading.

It didn’t take long for him to regret that decision.

The further he read, the more tears rolled down his cheeks. 

It was everything about the book that was too much right now – the fact that it belonged to Amity and that it was her favorite, as well as what the book was about... loneliness and longing for friends.

Was that why it had been her favorite? Because she’d always felt so lonely?

Edric’s worst fear was being alone and abandoned, and yet... he’d let their parents make Amity live exactly through that.

“We haven’t been very good siblings to you lately, have we?” He lowered his head and hugged the book to his chest, silently sobbing to himself. “I’m so sorry, Mittens. I’m so sorry.”

“Ugh, Luz, what is it now?”

Eda rubbed her eyes sleepily when she heard the knock on the door.

During the last couple of months, she’d gotten so used to Luz waking her up in the middle of the night – usually because she’d discovered a great new way to change a glyph, which wasn’t something Eda was thrilled to be woken up to see at three in the morning, despite the fact that she was immensely proud of Luz every time the human learned a new spell – that she immediately assumed the person that had walked into her room to wake her  _had to be_ Luz.

It took her a moment to wake up enough to remember that it  _couldn’t_ actually be Luz... that the girl that had stayed with her for the past couple of months was gone now, as far out of reach as she possibly could be, and that Eda might not see her again for several years.

Instead of Luz, it was Edric who was standing in the door frame when the door opened in response to her mumbling. 

He looked at her apologetically.

“Sorry, I know it’s late, I should just-”

Eda shook her head as she slowly got up. She rubbed her eyes and yawned.

“It’s fine, really. Luz did this all the time, so I’m used to it.“ 

Funnily enough, despite the girl constantly waking her in the middle of the night, she’d actually slept better with Luz around than she had in the years before meeting her.

“I still shouldn’t have barged in the way I did... especially after I told you to go back to sleep earlier.”

He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Like I said... it’s okay. You have nothing to apologize for.” Eda gave him a sympathetic look. “Can’t sleep, huh, kid?” Edric shook his head. “Did you change your mind about the sleep spell? I could guarantee it would let you sleep dreamlessly, or I could even make you dream about something nice. Just tell me what you want to dream of.”

“No...” He sighed and rubbed the back of his neck. “Eda, that’s nice of you to offer, but I still don’t really feel like sleeping. This might sound stupid, but can we just... talk for a bit?”

Eda shrugged, then gave Edric a small, tired smile.

“Oh what the heck, sleep’s overrated anyway. You wanna stay up here or go back downstairs?”

His face lit up immediately.

“Can we go back downstairs? I want to be there in case Em wakes up. I...” He bit his lip. “I don’t really think she should be alone right now.”

He knew he wouldn’t have wanted to be alone when he woke up again after everything that had happened tonight, so he wouldn’t risk putting his sister through that.

No matter how much she put on a brave face, it was pretty obvious that she was just as shaken up as he was.

Eda nodded.

“Sure. She should be out for at least six more hours... but if it makes you feel better, we can go sit down on the couch downstairs.”

He nodded.

“Thank you.”

“But I’m not going to wake up Hooty again, or he’s going to end up being so sleepy that the lights are all wacky tomorrow,” she said, stretching her arms and yawning as they walked back down the stairs.

Edric nodded sympathetically.

“That’s fine. He needs his sleep, just like the rest of us. I feel kinda bad for waking him earlier – I think we startled him a little when we got here, cloaks and all.”

After initially almost attacking them because he hadn’t recognized them, Hooty had greeted them very excitedly, though.

“Yeah, probably. But he’ll be fine.” Eda cast a light spell – the one that had been Luz’s specialty – to light the living room when they entered. Edric sat down on the couch and pulled his blanket from his bag to cover his legs. The book he’d stopped reading a while ago was still sitting on the table. “Do you want some apple blood now?”

He nodded. 

Eda took one of the juice boxes from the kitchen shelf and handed it to him before she sat down on the couch as well, keeping a bit of distance from him.

“Thanks.”

“No problem. We have like forty more of these, so feel free to drink as many as you want. I have to get rid of them some way, after all.” She shrugged and stayed quiet for a bit before asking softly, “...how’s your cheek?”

Edric winced.

“Better,” he mumbled after a moment, “but my cheek isn’t the part that hurts the most.”

“I know that doesn’t help much right now, but... I’m really sorry.”

“Thank you.” He bit his lip to keep himself from breaking down in tears again. “And it does help. If only a little.”

Sometimes, knowing that there was someone there who cared made all the difference.

“Do you want to tell me what happened, or talk about something else to keep your mind off everything? I’ll be here to listen either way. It’s your call.”

After a moment of hesitation, he started talking. 

Over the next two hours, Edric opened up and told Eda about everything that had happened on the past evening after they’d left the owl house.

How they’d made Amity cry, and what had happened with their parents after. He had to pause several times when the memories became too much, and the part where his mother had hit him he wasn’t even able to say out loud... but when he finished, the weight on his heart didn’t feel quite as heavy anymore, and he didn’t feel quite as alone as he had before.

It wasn’t suddenly okay – it was far from that, and he was sure it would never actually be completely okay... but it helped, at least a little, and right now, even _‘a little’_ made a huge difference to him.

“The only good thing about this messed up situation is that Amity as far out of their reach as she’ll ever be. They can’t do anything to hurt her where she is right now,” he mumbled.

It was the only thought that was the slightest bit consoling to him right now.

Eda felt sick and angry just from listening to what she’d just heard. 

“You kids can stay here as long as you want, okay? I knew your parents were terrible people, but if I’d had any idea how bad it really was...”

At least they were out of there now. They’d be safe here. 

But she still wished she had the ability to turn back time to prevent them from going through all of this in the first place.

Nobody deserved to be hurt like this.

Especially not by someone whose job it should have been to protect them.

Edric shook his head.

“It’s not your fault. We’re not your responsibility.”

“You are now,” she said without hesitation. How she’d gone from never really thinking about having children before meeting Luz to basically being ready to take in just about any child her unofficially adopted daughter had brought home since then in just a couple of months, Eda wasn’t exactly sure. ...but she regretted nothing. “Do you want one of these parallel arm things Luz always does?”

“A hug?” 

Edric blinked in surprise.

“We don’t have to. I just remember it always made her feel better when she was down, and sometimes it makes me feel better... so maybe it would help you, too?”

He didn’t even reply and instead just pulled the older woman close with an energy that reminded Eda a lot of Luz, even if it didn’t quite reach her level.

She patted his back a bit awkwardly, and they remained frozen like that for a while before he finally let go of her again.

“Thanks. I... really needed that.” He couldn’t even remember the last time Odalia or Alador had held him like that. Or the last time he’d felt remotely comfortable or even safe in their presence, for that matter.  _‘Titan, how did I miss so many red flags?’_

It made him sick to even think about that.

The owl lady gave him a kind smile.

“Don’t mention it. If you need any help kicking Odalia’s and Alador’s asses if they ever bother you again – or because of tonight’s incident –, all you have to do is ask.”

Edric bit his lip.

“I... thanks.” That meant a lot to him, despite the fact that he was more than unlikely to ever take her up on that offer. Answering violence with more violence never helped anyone involved in the situation, and he’d much rather forget these two existed altogether than waste even more time and energy on them than he already had. Still, he couldn’t help but wonder... “How do you know our parents?”

Eda sighed.

“I went to school with them, unfortunately.” They hadn’t even been in the same grade – Alador and Odalia were a bit younger than her, although far from as much as most people would have assumed because of her misleading appearance –, but she’d still run across them outside of class a couple more times than she would have preferred, and she had learned to dislike them rather quickly. “Bunch of assholes, even back then. Your mom especially. I constantly saw her tormenting people because she thought that was fun. She even stole my sister’s lunch money once...“ Eda cracked a smile at the memory. “I made sure she regretted that one, though.”

Edric looked at her, super confused.

“...why would she steal anyone’s lunch money? Her family has always been super rich.”

Eda crossed her arms.

“Oh, she didn’t do it because she needed the money. She did it because it made Lily cry. She liked making people cry.” The most surprising thing about this was that Odalia had even dared to do that at all, because Lilith had been at least three grades above her if Eda recalled correctly... but for some reason, that girl had always been under the somewhat delusional impression that she was untouchable because she came from an influential family. _‘_ _Apparently she hasn’t changed much since high school,’_ Eda thought grimly.

To her surprise, Edric almost laughed.

“Well, that explains why she was so tense when Lilith showed up to pick up Amity for training for the first time.” 

Because of what she’d done to Amity, Lilith was just below his parents on the list of people he disliked the most on the entire Boiling Isles... but remembering his mother’s distraught face after hearing that the head of the Emperor’s Coven would be training her youngest daughter with the added context of said head of the Emperor’s Coven being someone she’d been caught pickpocketing from as a student was almost enough to make him smile. 

_ And then she’d probably walked on eggshells around Lilith for years, hoping and praying that Lilith would never bring the situation up around anyone important, and maybe that she’d even forgotten about it, but never being quite sure about it – and it wasn’t like she could have just asked. _

It was nice to know that karma had come back to bite her at least a little bit, even if it was in favor of another person that Edric didn’t like very much.

Eda raised an eyebrow.

“You didn’t know that? I can’t believe Lily didn’t mention it. I mean, she does a decent job at hiding it when she’s supposed to be professional, but, believe it or not, my sister is actually  _really_ petty.”

 _“Really?”_ Edric raised an eyebrow. “I have a hard time imagining that, considering her focus on winning the  _‘most righteous, stuck-up witch on the entire Boiling Isles’_ -competition.”

He made air quotes.

Eda snorted.

She was really starting to like this kid.

“Yeah, really. When we were younger, there wasn’t a single time I stuck out my tongue at Lily that she didn’t stick hers out at me in return, even after we became teens.” She sighed melancholic. “This might sound stupid, but I miss the silly fights we had as kids pretty often.” 

Eda didn’t really let it show much, but she was actually really worried about her sister because of how drastically she’d changed.

She was livid because of what Lilith had done to Luz and Amity, and Eda doubted that was something she could ever forgive her sister for... but there were moments where she suddenly remembered what their relationship had been like when they were younger, and then, for a few seconds, she just missed getting into dumb, heated arguments about which stupid spell that they’d learned was more powerful, or who they thought would win the next professional Grudgby championship, or why Eda’s favorite book was definitely a thousand times better than Lilith’s, or which one they thought had the worse taste in music...

It was weird how much she missed that. On some days, she’d have given anything to have it back. 

But if what had happened with Luz and Amity hadn’t finally been enough to make Lilith realize that what she was doing was wrong... then nothing would ever get through to her. 

Then Belos had already taken everything Eda had ever loved and admired in her older sister and warped it into a shadow of the person she had once been – into someone that truly only lived to receive orders and execute them, without ever stopping to question if what she was doing was right.

_ ‘After what you’ve done... do I even still know you anymore?’ _

“It’s not stupid,” Edric replied and gave Eda’s shoulder a squeeze, thereby interrupting her thoughts. “Wanting to go back to how things used to be, I mean. But sometimes, you can’t. Sometimes, something you want is already gone in reality, and you’ve just been in denial about it for a long time.” He sighed, thinking back to everything it had taken for him to finally accept the reality of the situation with his parents. “That’s hard to accept. It hurts. But somehow, you have to... because if you don’t, you can never truly move on and be happy again.”

Eda smiled and ruffled his hair.

“...huh. You’re a smart kid, aren’t you?”

Edric shook his head and chuckled.

“Thanks. I think it’s the sleep deprivation.”

Eda laughed, and for a moment, she couldn’t help but imagine Luz’s reaction as well. 

The human girl’s laugh was the world’s most annoyingly wonderful sound in the world, and Eda missed it beyond words.

She sighed.

Spending so much time talking to Edric really made her miss her daughter even more than she already had.

Maybe she could at least keep calling Luz, even when they had nothing new to report about the portal. 

Just so that Eda could see her daughter and the girl Luz liked. Just so that she was sure they were okay, even if they couldn’t actually spend any time together.

The thought made her feel happier.

They stayed up just sitting there and talking about anything and everything for titan knew how long... and it made both of them feel a bit better. They got along really well.

Edric wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he finally fell asleep.

And just like Eda had promised, he didn’t dream.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_domestic_violence_hotlines  
> I’m going to leave this here for anyone that might need it.  
> My heart goes out to anyone that has had to go through abuse in the past or is currently still going through it.  
> What’s happening to you isn’t your fault, please don’t ever let anyone make you believe that.
> 
> Summary of the events of this chapter:  
> The twins break down over hurting Amity. When their parents come back home, they tell them vaguely about what happened to Amity and ask them for help, which their parents refuse, revealing that they have already been informed of the events by the Emperor, and saying that Amity should have known better and that they won’t be helping her.  
> Edric calls their parents out on their awful behavior and on the fact that apparently, they only care about their status and social standing rather than their children, after which Odalia slaps his face.  
> Emira gets extremely angry and uses up basically all of her magic magic, and eventually manages to knock their parents unconscious.  
> After that, the twins collectively decide to run away from home, packing the bare necessities and some things for Amity before leaving and never looking back.  
> They show up at the owl house in the middle of the night, both extremely shaken up, and Eda allows them to stay. She casts a sleep spell on Emira because the girl asked her to. Edric asks her to go back to sleep at first, but wakes her a while later because he needs someone to talk to, and he opens up to her about what happened, which helps him cope with everything a little bit better.  
> Eda tells him he and Emira can stay with her as long as they want. They stay up talking for a while longer after that, until eventually, he falls asleep.
> 
> This chapter was the hardest one for me to write by far, because this is a really serious, difficult topic to write about, which is part of why the chapter took me so long to finish (the other part is that it also got really long, it’s over 8k words again).  
> I rewrote some of the scenes multiple times, and I hope I was able to handle this sensitively – if I didn’t, please call me out on it and tell me what I need to change.
> 
> A couple more things that I feel like I should say:  
> No, the twins will at no point in the story be forgiving their parents.  
> Also, I never put the characters through endless amounts of hurt just for the sake of drama. At the end of the day, this story is about healing. There will be other emotional chapters, and there will be a couple more heavy scenes, but this is likely going to stay the heaviest chapter of the entire story.
> 
> And most importantly: please take this topic seriously in real life as well.
> 
> Thank you for reading, and thank you for all the wonderful, sweet comments I got on the last chapter (and also just on the story in general), I appreciate it an insane amount. I will still try to answer a lot of them that I haven’t answered so far, I promise.  
> We’ve also hit more than 3k kudos, which is... insane, but also makes me really, really happy.
> 
> I now have a Spotify playlist for this story: https://link.tospotify.com/OnYvKk7Kyab
> 
> Also, check out this wonderful piece of art that someone made for the last chapter, it’s both on tumblr: https://pebblume.tumblr.com/post/631095589674811393/this-is-a-scene-from-eleenadumes  
> and on Instagram:  
> https://www.instagram.com/p/CF7gn7RAOZu/?igshid=1dpj3tmms11jk


	9. Reality Check

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Welcome back to the newest chapter of ‘someone please put me out of my misery because the characters just won’t shut up’! XD  
> This is the longest chapter yet – and will hopefully stay the longest chapter, period –, with a bit over 10.5k words.  
> You have been warned about what you’re getting into XD  
> I hope the long chapter makes up for the wait a bit :)  
> Also, I’m not mentioning this every single time because that would get kind of annoying, but please assume that whenever Luz is hugging Amity here, she’s being careful not to touch her injury.  
> Oh, and heads up, the accuracy of the bureaucracy here is extremely questionable, but since this is a fanfic about fantasy, I hope that’s okay XD  
> That being said, I hope you have fun reading!

The next morning, Luz was up way before Amity was. 

She was pretty exhausted, but she forced herself out of bed to get dressed and get ready for school anyway, deactivating her alarm clock before it could also wake Amity – who Luz was pretty sure had slept even less than her, so she really wanted to let her friend sleep in at least a little longer.

She was up too early anyway.

The only good thing about the fact that they’d both barely slept was that they’d been able to change Amity’s bandage twice – once before they’d first laid down to sleep, and the second time about an hour ago. Both times, Luz had been able to apply new glyphs to her friend’s back without risking her mom possibly seeing it.

The wound wasn’t healing as fast as Luz had hoped it would, but at least the magic eased Amity’s pain a little and made it easier for her to move. That was already worth a lot.

  
  


When Luz got downstairs, her mom was already in the kitchen, emptying the dishwasher and packing her daughter’s lunch for school.

“I let Amity sleep a bit longer, I hope that’s okay. I wasn’t sure when you were planning to leave with her, but she didn’t sleep very well, so I thought-”

Camila chuckled a bit at the rambled-information-greeting that was  _so very Luz_ and that she’d missed so dearly over the summer. She ruffled her daughter’s hair when she got out of the kitchen, then handed Luz her Azura-lunchbox.

“It’s perfectly fine. Good morning, mija.”

“Gracias, mami.” Luz put the lunchbox into her school bag. She’d completely forgotten to prepare any food to bring to school the day before, because, well, school had kind of seemed like the least of her concerns. It still felt surreal that she was just... supposed to go back to normal school today, despite everything that had happened over the summer – and everything that was  _currently_ happening. “And good morning to you, too.”

Luz got herself some apple juice and a piece of bread with jam from the kitchen that she could eat before she left for school.

Her mom sat down to eat beside her.

“Can you tell me a bit about Amity?” Camila asked somewhat hesitantly after they’d finished breakfast. “Nothing she wouldn’t be comfortable with me knowing, of course, but... anything that could help me connect with her a bit would already help. She needs support right now, and since you have to go to school, that will have to be me.”

Luz nodded. She didn’t feel comfortable with the thought of leaving Amity’s side after how bad the previous night had been, but she didn’t have much clue about the things her mom and Amity now had to take care of, so she was more likely to get in the way rather than be helpful, and considering how little some of her teachers and the principal already liked her, skipping the first day of school probably wasn’t the greatest idea.

Telling her mom a bit about her friend so that Camila could support her properly was the least she could do.

Luz thought for a moment, contemplating what Amity would be comfortable with her mom knowing before she decided what she should start with. 

“So, first of all, and that’s probably the most important thing to remember... Amity doesn’t open up to others easily. Whatever you do, please don’t take that personally. She’s just been hurt, and has a hard time forming relationships with others because of it. She needs time to learn to trust someone before she can really let them in. She’s probably not going to tell you a lot about herself anytime soon. That’s how she is with everyone.” 

That was important, and also something she could tell her mom without really giving her any additional information about Amity.

Camila nodded.

“Okay. Understood.” 

She ruffled her daughter’s hair, and couldn’t help but think about her own relationship with Luz.

It had been a long time since she’d last felt like her daughter was open with her about how she was feeling. When asked how her day had been, Luz’s reply never went far beyond an ‘alright’ and a shrug before she changed the topic, so the longer texts and letters had been a real surprise.

Sometimes, Camila was able to see through her daughter like no one else could... but most of the time, this girl she loved more than anything in the entire universe was like the world’s most complicated riddle to her.

She tried her best to understand her daughter, but Luz was often so wrapped up in her stories that her mother couldn’t seem to reach her amidst them.

Camila would’ve done anything to be closer to her daughter once more, but no matter what she tried, they kept slipping further and further apart from each other the older Luz grew. 

She’d reassured her daughter so many times that they could talk about anything and everything, that Camila would be there for her and listen to her, but despite Luz telling her she knew that, the adult knew there were a lot of things her daughter kept from her.

Not that she thought she needed to know everything that was going on in her daughter’s life – of course not –, but she hadn’t even known Luz had  _wanted_ to participate in the cheer tryouts or audition for the school play before the principal’s office had called her because of the incidents. 

She felt like she was missing out on so much of her daughter’s life, and knowing that hurt because of how important Luz was to her. Because she  _wanted_ to support her daughter when she was trying new things.

Camila didn’t know a lot about cheer, but she would’ve been willing to look some things up if she’d known how important that was to Luz. 

And while she was pretty sure her daughter didn’t know that, Camila had actually been a theater kid back in her own high school days. She’d even played the lead in one year. It had been a long time since, sure, but she was still certain that if Luz had told her about the audition, she would have been able to help her practice.

But she couldn’t do that if her daughter didn’t talk to her about anything.

...it wasn’t entirely Luz’s fault, of course. Camila knew that if anything, it was her own fault – it had a lot to do with how much she worked. A lot of days, she got home late or had to sleep during the day because of her night shifts. And while she loved the work at the hospital and knew that what she was doing was extremely important, there were days when she almost hated her job. 

She regretted working so much overtime because of how little time she got to spend with Luz as a result, and she often felt like she was unable to be there for her daughter the way she should have been... the way Luz deserved.

At times like this, the glaring hole that Luz’s father had left in their life was really hard to ignore.

He’d always connected to their daughter much easier than Camila could.

But she couldn’t change that he was gone... all she could do was try her best to make a life for herself and Luz without him.

Camila’s daughter tapped her arm gently, interrupting her thoughts.

“...mom, are you okay?” Luz was looking up at her worriedly. “Did- did I say something wrong?”

Camila was startled by her daughter’s expression. 

...then the adult realized she’d started crying. 

No wonder Luz was so freaked out.

“No, of course not, cariño.” The adult hugged her daughter to emphasize she wasn’t mad, then wiped the tears off her cheeks. “I’m sorry, I just got really lost in my thoughts for a moment.”

“It’s okay. I mean, we both know I do that a lot, so I’m not sure why you’d think you need to apologize about that to  _me_ of all people.”

Luz chuckled a bit, still a little worried, but mostly just relieved her mom wasn’t mad at her. She didn’t like fighting with her.

“Is there anything else you can tell me about Amity?” Camila changed the topic back to the previous one before her daughter could dig deeper into why she’d been upset.

She really needed to talk to her about all of those things – and soon –, but not when they only had about half an hour before Luz had to get to school. 

Luz nodded and continued where she’d left off.

“Well, school is really important to her, and she puts a lot of pressure on herself, in addition to the pressure that her parents already put on her, or maybe because of it, so... maybe don’t talk to her about school more than you absolutely have to right now.” That was the topic that was most likely to make Amity break down at the moment, so it was important for Camila to know to avoid it. Then, Luz started telling her mom the same kinds of things she had told her about her other friends. “She likes reading – she even read to kids at the library where she’s from, and loves doing voices. I swear, it’s the cutest thing I’ve ever seen. She’s into Azura like I am – I don’t know for sure, but that might even be the reason she dyed her hair. She likes sweet food way more than any other type, although she’d die before admitting that out loud – but the way her eyes light up speak volumes. She can dance really well. We danced together at some point during camp, and we both had so much fun that I couldn’t stop thinking about it for days. Oh, and she really likes flowers, but she’s a bit embarrassed about that, and weirdly enough she likes them way more when they’re from me than when they’re from Willow, despite the fact that Willow is way better with plant-” She was able to stop herself just in time before the word ‘magic’ slipped out. “-s.”

Luz continued on like that for a couple more minutes, talking about the most casual things like they made Amity the most amazing person on the planet. 

Camila’s smile widened with every word, and she couldn’t help but think this was one of the very rare occasions where she actually  _did_ understand her daughter and the reason her eyes were sparkling.

“You like Amity, don’t you?” Camila asked after her daughter had finished her quick rundown on everything she liked about the girl she was currently sharing a room with.

Luz beamed.

“Of course I do! Amity is amazing. She’s smart and funny and kind and brave and beautiful... what’s there not to like about her? I still can’t believe someone like her would want to be my friend.”

Camila smiled, her suspicions confirmed despite Luz not actually answering the question she’d asked.

“Luz... that’s not what I meant.” It took a bit for the realization of what she was asking to dawn on her daughter’s face.  _‘You’re too much like your father sometimes,’_ Camila mused, trying her hardest to swallow the pain that followed the thought right on its tail.

“Oh.” Luz started chuckling nervously when she finally realized what her mother meant. “Oh, no, I don’t- I don’t think-” 

She paused, struggling to find the right words... and actually not quite sure how to answer that. In all honesty, she hadn’t spent a lot of time reflecting on her feelings for the green-haired witch while they’d been in the Boiling Isles – among all the magic and the exciting dangers of the other realm, the way Amity made her heart flutter when she was with her had been a bit of an afterthought. But now that Luz thought about it... everything she’d just told her mom, the time she and Amity had spent together, the way she got protective around her, how nervous Amity made her, and the way she always wanted to be Amity’s hero, her _‘fearless champion’_ – all of these things added up into a single picture.

Sometimes, when Luz closed her eyes, all she could see was Amity’s face, all she could hear was Amity’s laughter, and all she could think of was wanting to make her smile, over and over and over again, for the rest of forever.

And she  _had_ thought about kissing her for a second two days before.

...that meant something, didn’t it?

_ ‘Uh oh.’ _

Luz could feel the color draining from her face. 

The thought made her heart stop.

This was bad. 

This was really, really, really bad. 

She couldn’t be in love with Amity.

Truth be told, Luz had never thought much about being in a relationship before. It wasn’t like she’d never wanted to go on a date before – the stories she read always made them seem super fun and exciting, after all –, but someone liking her? 

_ Romantically? _

That thought had always seemed ridiculous to her.

People in her realm didn’t like her. They thought she was a weirdo. And while Luz herself knew that wasn’t a bad thing – being different was what made people special, had they all been the same, the world would have been a really boring place –, being treated like an outsider pretty much all your life did something to your confidence.

The summer in the Boiling Isles had helped, she had real friends now that liked her for who she was... but that didn’t mean Luz suddenly thought she’d be the Hecate to someone’s Azura anytime soon.

_...especially not to Amity’s. _

“Luz?” 

Her mother’s voice stopped Luz’s racing train of thoughts abruptly. She took a deep breath and got a hold of herself.

“I don’t know, mami.” The teen sighed audibly. “I like Amity – a lot, as you may have realized from my excited rambling about her. There’s so many things I like about her, and she never fails to make me smile, and the thought of her hurting makes my heart ache, too. But I’ve never really liked anyone like that before, and even if I  _did_ know how that feels and was sure that’s what I’m feeling... Amity already has a lot on her mind right now. With everything she’s going through at the moment, what I do or don’t feel for her doesn’t really matter. All that matters is that I’m there for her, that I support her and help her through this no matter what. Confessing to her and making things awkward between us is the absolute last thing this situation needs in addition to everything else she already has going on.”

Amity would be staying with them for weeks. Messing their relationship up now was the absolute worst thing Luz could have done.

The good news was, she would have plenty of time to maybe, hopefully sort out whatever these confusing feelings meant that she might or might not be experiencing whenever she looked at the green-haired witch. She’d put more thought into how she acted around Amity, and would pay closer attention to her friend’s reactions... then maybe she’d be able to sort out the chaos in her head.

Once that was done – once she was sure –, she could still figure out if she should tell Amity or not.

“Oh cariño...“ Camila pulled her daughter into a hug. When had she become so responsible?  _‘You’ve really changed a lot over the summer, haven’t you?’_

Camila felt pride and guilt rise in her chest when she thought about that. 

It was wonderful that her daughter stood up for what was right and did everything she could to help her friend – but Luz was just fourteen.  
Camila hadn’t meant for her daughter to grow up that fast.

But she didn’t have time to dwell on that, because a moment later, they heard movement on the stairs.

“Amity,” Luz whispered.

When she saw her friend standing at the bottom of the staircase, looking really upset and probably the most exhausted Luz had ever seen her, everything else was forgotten in an instant. 

She immediately rushed to Amity’s side and gently pulled her into a hug.

“Hi Luz.”

Amity buried her head in her friend’s shoulder.

“How are you feeling?”

“I- I don’t know.” The green-haired witch bit her lip. “Still not great, I think.”

She’d left her hair down, and after struggling to get herself out of bed, had put on the long-sleeved purple top and jeans that Luz had picked out for her. She’d also put the beanie back on... even if she didn’t need it to hide her ears anymore, it just made her feel comfortable.

“Are you hungry? You should eat something,” Luz mumbled, trying not to sound pushy, but still immensely worried.

Amity just shook her head. She didn’t feel much like eating right now – she’d barely eaten the evening before, either. Her appetite was all but gone entirely now.

“I won’t let you leave the house without having breakfast.” 

Camila looked a bit stern, but it was obvious that she was mostly just concerned. Amity was kind of touched by that – and that realization hurt at the same time, because she knew her own parents wouldn’t have cared.

The good news was, Camila was definitely convinced they were telling the truth now. The bad news was, Amity was actually the broken mess she pretended to be – just for a very different reason.

“I really don’t think I can eat right now, Ms. Noceda. I’m not feeling very well.”

Her head was still spinning from everything that had happened the day before, so much that she almost felt sick because of it.

Everything was just too much.

She was really surprised she’d managed to get out of bed at all, especially because she’d barely slept, instead waking up screaming from some stupid nightmare about grades or her parents or Lilith yelling at her... and each time, she’d woken Luz in the process, who instead of getting mad at her had just turned the lights on and held her until she’d calmed down a bit, the same way she was right now.

“I’m so sorry,” Luz whispered, gently stroking her friend’s hair.

She felt so incredibly guilty about this whole situation. All of this because of a stupid hair clip.  _‘I wish this never happened.’_

And even if the reason had been something else,  **nothing** would ever be worth seeing Amity this shattered. 

Had there been any way to undo this, Luz would have taken it without hesitation. ...even if it had meant never seeing Amity again.

_ ‘There are very few things I wouldn’t be willing to do for her, aren’t there?’ _

“Don’t apologize. It isn’t your fault,” Amity mumbled through her sobs, snuggling against Luz’s chest. “I’m so thankful for everything you’ve done for me in the last couple of days.” 

And in the last couple of months, if she was being honest. Luz had turned her entire life upside down in the best possible way. 

She wouldn’t trade that for the world.

This whole mess was no one’s fault but Amity’s own, least of all Luz’s. There was no reason for her to feel guilty. That was the last thing Amity wanted.

They remained cuddled up on the couch like that for a couple more minutes, until Camila reminded them that Luz had to get to school.

Luz tensed a little at that, hoped nobody noticed and got up.

Camila decided to take her to school by car, since she wanted to talk to the principal about Amity in person anyway.

Amity was... not very excited at the prospect of getting into one of the things that had made Luz so freaked out when they first got into this realm – despite the fact that her crush seemed perfectly calm now. 

“Is this going to eat me now because I caused your mom so much trouble?” the green-haired witch whispered when they got closer to the car, visibly freaked out.

Luz shook her head.

“Of course not. It’s not... mom would never hurt you. And cars don’t eat people, I promise.“

Her friend was still unconvinced.

“Do you know for sure they also don’t eat elves?”

“I do.”

...well, technically she didn’t, since she was pretty sure no elf had ever stepped inside a car before, but since cars couldn’t actually eat anything, Luz considered it a pretty safe bet.

She opened the door and climbed onto the backseat first, gesturing for Amity to follow, which, after another moment of hesitation, she did.

“Huh, I guess this isn’t so ba-” Amity mumbled after a while of sitting there peacefully, suppressing a shriek when the car suddenly started vibrating. She barely managed to keep her voice down. “It’s going to eat us...”

Luz reached for her friend’s hand and squeezed it soothingly.

“It’s not going to eat us. This is perfectly normal.”

But despite the reassurance, and despite the fact that nothing was actually happening aside from them moving, Amity didn’t let go of Luz’s hand until they stopped in front of the school.

For Amity, the rest of the day passed by in a blur. They talked to a lot of different people and went to a bunch of different buildings, almost all of which, except the school, she didn’t even recognize the name of. She was very confused by most of them, letting Camila do almost all the talking unless she was asked about something directly. 

The less she said, the less she  could say that would sound weird to anyone from this world, after all.

Throughout the entire day, she was pretty lost in her thoughts, still not entirely able to grasp what had happened and what it meant for her and her future that she wasn’t able to attend her school now.

Just how lost in her thoughts she was didn’t go unnoticed by the woman she was with, who couldn’t help but offer the girl to talk to her about what was on her mind if she wanted to. Even if Amity didn’t end up telling her anything, it was important to at least try – to let the girl know that the possibility was there, even if she wasn’t ready yet.

“Penny for your thoughts?”

Amity gave Camila a startled look and shook her head.

“...they’re not for sale.” Selling one’s thoughts was a highly illegal practice in the Boiling Isles because it was extremely dangerous – it could permanently tear apart a being’s mind.  _‘Is that different here?’_

The adult wasn’t sure if the reply was supposed to be a joke or not – it was hard to tell from the girl’s expression –, but she decided to just word what she meant a little differently in case it hadn’t been. Amity’s English was perfectly fine otherwise, but this wasn’t the first time Camila had noticed a reaction like this to a relatively common saying.

“I just meant... you probably have a lot on your mind right now. I know I’m not Luz, but if there’s anything you want to get off your chest, you can talk to me, okay?”

“Oh.” Amity bit her lip. “That’s sweet, Ms. Noceda, but I really don’t think... I mean...”

The more she told her, the more likely it was that she let something slip that made Luz’s mom suspicious, so she wasn’t sure how smart it was to talk to her in a situation where Luz wasn’t around to save her from saying something wrong at the last second.

“If you’re not ready, that’s okay. Just... know that I’m there for you whenever you are, alright?”

Amity felt tears welling up in her eyes again.

“Thank you,” she mumbled, her voice cracking.

“Of course.” The adult smiled softly at her, then couldn’t help but notice Amity staring at one of the food stands. “Come on, let’s go get lunch somewhere, okay? I’m getting hungry, too.”

Amity hesitated, a bit embarrassed that Camila had realized what she was looking at, but her grumbling stomach was very persistent, so eventually, to the adult’s relief, she gave in.

Luz spent about half an hour crying in bed after she got home from school.

Over the summer, she’d almost forgotten how bad school in the human realm was, and now that she knew what it was like to attend a school where she actually had friends and where she fit in, it seemed even worse.

Eventually, she forced herself to get up and do the homework she’d been given, hoping – and surprisingly actually succeeding – to finish it before her mom and Amity got home.

When the two of them finally got home, Camila was visibly extremely annoyed while the green-haired witch just looked exhausted and guilty.

She felt horrible for causing Luz’s mom so much trouble, especially because they weren’t even being honest with her.

“Everything okay?” Luz asked when walked down the stairs, hugging both of them to greet them.

“It’s going to be fine.” Camila hugged her back. “Just a bunch of bureaucratic nonsense that I’m hoping we’ll be able to take care of soon enough. Hopefully at least some of it tomorrow. I swear, half the people we talked to today gave me the impression they had no idea what their job was.” She sighed. “But oh well.”

It wasn’t like she’d expected this to be easy... but she was more than willing to make an effort, even if that meant sacrificing both of her days off for it.

Hopefully she could take a couple days of vacation sometime soon to spend some time with the girls and get more of this sorted out.

While Camila was busy warming up the leftovers from the day before, the girls snuck upstairs to change Amity’s bandages again.

During dinner, although Amity was still taking it a bit slow, she was eating properly again. That was a huge relief to both Luz and her mom.

Once they’d finished eating, Amity and Luz spent the rest of the evening watching Little Witch Academia, cuddled up on the couch with a woolen blanket and some tea. 

Camila let them have the TV for the entire evening while she made a couple more phone calls, and then sat down at the table to finish reading the book she’d started about a week before, occasionally glancing over at her daughter and Amity.

It was good to see them having fun together despite everything that was happening, and despite the fact that Camila didn’t really see the appeal of the show... she didn’t have to. 

Since Luz was already done with her homework, her mom didn’t have any issues with them watching it – and since Amity needed a distraction right now, Camila would probably have gone easy on her daughter anyway.

In the middle of all this, a couple of notes from teachers about forgotten homework were the least of her concerns.

Luz was very happy that her friend seemed to enjoy the show they’d picked. Although the topic was, ironically, not just some faraway fantasy world but instead at least somewhat close to their reality, watching it still seemed to help Amity take her mind off of everything and relax a little – once she’d understood what a TV was, at least.

And, while never quite laughing, Luz could see Amity break into a small smile every now and again, which was a huge step in the right direction.

Luz herself was also having a pretty good time – it felt like ages since she’d last seen the show, and seeing the reactions of someone who had never seen it before was always pretty fun.

Eventually, the green-haired witch nodded off with her head on Luz‘s shoulder, and when Luz woke her up again – after being hesitant to do that for a while because Amity looked so adorable and also Amity sleeping on her shoulder felt weirdly nice –, they decided it was time to call it a night.

The next day went pretty similar to the previous one, up to the point when Luz started her homework, but couldn’t finish it because the ringing phone on the nightstand behind her interrupted her in the middle of it.

It didn’t take long for her to realize that it wasn’t her own phone but her friend’s.

Luz wasn’t sure if Amity had left it there on purpose or if she’d just forgotten it because of how upset and distracted she’d been, but it was sitting there on the bedside table now, ringing, and Luz was contemplating what to do.

She knew she probably should have left it alone, but when she looked at the contact and saw it was Edric, a surge of anger got a hold of her, and she picked up.

“Amity, listen, we-”

She didn’t let him finish.

“Amity isn’t here right now.” 

She surprised herself with how cold her voice sounded. It took a lot for Luz to get mad at someone, but when she did, she got  _really_ mad. She’d threatened to unfriend them if they ever hurt Amity with their actions for a reason. And they had – Emira especially.

Amity whispering  _‘I asked them to do it’_ at the back of her mind did nothing to soothe Luz when all she could think of was her friend falling to pieces in her arms.

The screen slowly faded from black into a picture of both of the Blight twins sitting on one of the Owl House’s couches.

“Oh, hi Luz.” Emira sounded completely deflated, with just the tiniest hint of relief in her voice about not having to face Amity right now. She wasn’t sure if she’d ever be able to face her sister again after everything she’d said to her. “If she’s not with you right now... can you at least tell us how she’s doing?”

The human girl crossed her arms and stared her down.

“How do you  **think** she’s doing after what you did to her?!” Luz growled. “What is wrong with you?! You know exactly how much school means to Amity!  **_How could you do this to her?!_** ”

The older, much taller teen seemed very small all of a sudden.

She eyed the floor. Her brother gave her shoulder a gentle squeeze, then turned back to Luz.

“You think she doesn’t know that?!  _You think we haven’t spent the last two days beating ourselves up about it?!”_ He looked Luz directly in the eyes, sounding more desperate than mad, and for the first time since they’d started talking, Luz realized how exhausted he looked. And Emira looked even worse. She was on the brink of tears. “Listen... it’s not that we don’t appreciate you looking out for Mittens – _we really do_ –, but yelling at Em isn’t helpful right now, okay?”

Luz’s anger melted away.

“I’m sorry, I...” 

She hadn’t meant to make anyone cry.

Emira shook her head.

“Don’t apologize. You were just protecting Amity. I... I’m glad she has someone in her life that cares as much about her as you do. And you’re right, after all. I deserve to be yelled at for what I said to her.”

“Maybe. Probably. But Edric’s right. It doesn’t solve anything.” Luz faced the floor, clenching her hands around the phone in her hand just a little too hard. “I- I’m just scared. I’ve never seen her this shattered before...”

Edric gulped.

“I-it’s that bad, huh?”

“It’s like Amity said,” Emira mumbled. “We know how to make her hurt like no one else can.”

It went really quiet for a moment, neither of them facing the other until eventually, Edric looked up at Luz again.

“Luz, listen to me, okay? Something... happened. We really need to talk to Amity.”

There was something so haunted in his expression and the way he spoke that it took Luz’s breath away.

“It’s not the kind of thing I could just tell her if you told me, is it?” 

The twins shook their heads.

“She can’t hear it from anyone else. It’s something she needs to hear from us.” Emira’s voice was quiet and still extremely deflated. “But not right now. Not... not when she’s still reeling from what I did to her.”

“Em...” Edric’s voice was kind and understanding, but there was also something stern in his tone.

Emira shook her head, then turned to look up at Luz.

“Just... just promise me you’ll be there with her when we tell her, okay?”

Luz nodded.

“Okay. I promise,” she said without hesitation.

She was scared. She wasn’t sure what was going on, but whatever it was, it  sounded _terrible_ – especially since the twins were this serious about it.

As long as Luz had known them, the twins had never been serious about  _anything._

Emira gave her a small, grateful smile.

“Thank you.”

Finishing her homework with  _whatever that call had been_ in mind turned out to be difficult for Luz. Her mind kept wandering to all kinds of horror scenarios about what it was that the twins had to tell Amity that was  _this bad,_ and she was pretty sure she took three times as long to finish her homework as it would have taken her otherwise, and also that half of it was probably wrong because of how unfocused she’d been, but she didn’t care much.

At least she was done by the time she heard the front door open, even if just barely.

She spent the next half an hour cooking dinner with her mom, who again seemed pretty stressed, while Amity was occupied with reading a book Luz had lent her.

“Are you done with your homework?” Camila asked suddenly when she was done chopping the vegetables.

Luz nodded. 

“Yeah, why?”

“Amity is still really down, and today was extremely stressful for her. The guy we talked to at the city hall basically probed her like she was some criminal and not just a fourteen-year-old.” Camila shook her head, still in complete disbelief about that. “So I was thinking... maybe you could take her out somewhere, to take her mind off of everything?”

“I’d love to, if she feels up for it.” Luz cocked her head. “Why do you look like you have something in mind already?”

“Well... remember how there’s a new Azura movie playing in the cinema right now? I was thinking maybe you could go see it when it’s playing in two hours?”

Camila had noticed one of the promotional posters in the city earlier, and since she knew that both her daughter and her daughter’s friend were into the franchise, she had looked up when the movie was playing next as soon as she’d gotten home.

“Really?! Can we?” Luz had completely forgotten about the movie release because of everything that was going on, but the thought of seeing it with Amity made her super excited – and she was pretty sure that could actually work. “That’s a great idea! That might be just the thing to cheer her up!”

Of course it wouldn’t magically poof all their problems away, and Luz couldn’t imagine Amity would ever completely stop being scared for her grades and her future until she was back in the Boiling Isles – which was perfectly understandable... but if Luz could at least cheer her friend up a little, that would be amazing.

Camila smiled a bit.

“I can drive you to the cinema after dinner, but I probably won’t be able to pick you up again afterwards because I still have some more calls to make.” After this whole ordeal, she would be happy to not even look at a phone again for at least a whole week. Not that that was realistic... but a woman could dream. “Are you okay with taking the bus back home?”

“Sure!” Luz was way too excited about being allowed to go to the cinema with Amity to care. And she was used to taking the bus a lot anyway, so it really wasn’t that big of a deal. Luz threw her arms around her mom.  _“Thankyouthankyouthankyou!”_

When she suggested it to Amity during dinner, the green-haired witch immediately agreed, still really stressed out from situation she was in, but also at least a bit excited to get to do something like that with Luz.

The cinema hall wasn’t exactly packed when they got there – it was a week night, so it wasn’t that surprising –, so Amity and Luz had little issues making their way to their seats.

Amity was amazed at how large the screen was. Sure, there were magical theaters in the Boiling Isles, but her parents had never let her see an Azura movie in one of them – they were too childish and cheesy and did nothing to further Amity’s academic progress, so they’d forbidden her from seeing them. 

As a result, she’d only ever seen them in her secret hideout at the library on one of the tiny crystal balls, way after they’d first been released.

The twins had tried to convince her to sneak out and see whatever she wanted, multiple times, but she’d never budged – she’d been too scared of what would happen if she was caught. 

She’d missed out on so much because she’d been scared.

But in this case, that meant she got to see her first big screen Azura movie with Luz... so maybe she was okay with that.

The seats were surprisingly comfortable, and since Luz had applied another spell to Amity’s injury right before they left, she would actually be able to focus on the movie rather than the pain in her back that resurfaced whenever the spells wore off. 

Luz put Amity’s drink in the cup holder next to her and put the bag of popcorn she’d bought down between them.

“You should try some. It tastes best when it’s still warm.”

“I- I don’t know. I’m not that hungry, I mean, we just had dinner, and...” Amity was hesitant because everything inside her was guiltily yelling  _‘that belongs to Luz, not to you, and she already paid for your drink’_ , but it was really hard to say no to her crush when she was looking at her like that.

“Come on, try it.” Luz nudged her friend gently. “I’m sure you’ll like it.”

Amity gave in. 

“More popcorn?” Luz whispered about thirty minutes into the movie when Amity hadn’t reached for more in a while, holding the bag towards her friend, who shook her head while the look in her eyes said something entirely different. “Come on. I insist.”

Amity bit her lip. Like a lot of the human food she’d tried in the last couple of days, this ‘popcorn’-stuff tasted sweet and extremely good, and she really liked the way it melted in her mouth. 

It wasn’t that she didn’t  _want_ more, but...

“But you paid for it.”

She felt bad enough for staying with Luz and her mom and being an extra mouth to feed for them for a couple of weeks. But Luz buying her something on top of that... that was too much.

Trying it was one thing, but actively eating more of it felt like she was being greedy.

Her friend raised an eyebrow.

“Yeah, and you paid for how many of  _my_ snacks over the summer? Let me treat you for once, damn it.”

“I-” Her friend’s smile made Amity’s defenses melt away, and she almost broke down in tears. Luz was the kindest person she’d ever met. How did someone like her deserve to have a girl like that in her life? “Okay...“

She extended her hand and slowly grabbed the popcorn bag again, her lips curling into a small smile.

Luz beamed at her. Amity trying new human foods and liking them brought her a lot of joy. Every little smile she got out of Amity after how hard the last few days had been was a small, beautiful victory.

Luz took another small palmful of popcorn for herself when Amity offered the bag to her again a bit later, but then handed it right back to her.

“Keep it. I think I’ve had enough for now.”

“Will those two ever shut up?” The guy in the row behind them grumbled annoyed at the person he was sitting with, while still saying it loud enough for the two girls to hear, probably on purpose. “I can barely hear the movie over all their talking.”

Luz was about to turn around and apologize when a female voice replied, “Oh, be quiet, Jonah. They’re adorable. I wish I had a girlfriend like that.” 

The voice let out a dreamy sigh. 

Luz was so surprised by what she’d just heard that she almost choked on her popcorn. She could feel her cheeks heat up and her heart fluttered in her chest at the thought, but she couldn’t bring herself to look over at her friend to see Amity’s reaction.

Instead, she cleared her throat awkwardly and was very,  very focused on the movie all of a sudden.

Why did the thought of someone assuming she and Amity were girlfriends make her so stupidly nervous yet so stupidly happy at the same time?

Amity’s face was just as red as Luz’s. She was pretty sure she‘d almost passed out, trying to keep herself from squealing as she hugged the popcorn to her chest.

_‘Someone thinks Luz and I are girlfriends. **Girlfriends.’**_

She eyed her crush nervously, but, feeling a bit bold all of a sudden, she reached for Luz’s hand.

The human girl immediately reacted to the gesture, gently intertwining her fingers with Amity’s.

Until the movie ended, neither of them let go.

“That was so much fun! I can’t believe they actually kissed!” Luz squealed. “That was a long time coming.”

“It really was,” Amity agreed, smiling, although she was way less happy about the kiss itself – despite the fact that it had been really cute –, and more happy about how excited it made Luz.

Seeing her all happy and excited made Amity’s heart race. There was nothing more precious in the entire universe.

“We’ll get so many new ship fics now that they’re officially a thing!” When they left the cinema, the smell of wet pavement filled her nose, and the picture fit the scent. “Oh. It’s raining” Luz said, a smile spreading across her face.

It was somewhat heavy rain, too – and she couldn’t help but get excited about that.

It felt like ages since she’d last been able to feel rain on her skin, and Luz couldn’t help but run out from under the cinema’s roof that extended slightly onto the sidewalk, thrilled at the prospect of feeling it again.

Amity, for whom the word _‘r_ _ ain’ _ equaled imminent danger, had a small heart attack.

“No, don’t!” she shrieked and immediately pulled her friend back under the safe cover of the building. _“What were you thinking?! You could’ve gotten hurt!”_

She pulled her crush into a hug.

She was immensely freaked out.

Luz suppressed a laugh, since obviously there was no way to actually get hurt by earth rain.

...not that she was complaining about the hug, though.

She returned it, gently putting her arms around her friend and waiting for Amity to calm down a bit before slowly letting go and explaining the situation to her.

“Our rain isn’t like the rain on the Boiling Isles. It’s completely harmless. Look.” 

She pointed at the other people walking around in the rain, completely unbothered by it. 

Amity blinked. Everyone walking around like that while it was raining, without any visible magic cover, was one of the weirdest, scariest things she’d ever seen.

“...really?”

She couldn’t believe what Luz was saying. It wasn’t like she didn’t trust her, but growing up knowing the very thing that her friend was calling harmless here was deadly wasn’t something she could just turn off.

“Yeah.” Luz smiled softly at her. “But thanks for looking out for me. I really appreciate it.”

Amity smiled back at her.

“Always.”

Then Luz took off the jacket she was wearing and gently placed it around Amity’s shoulders.

“Here, you take the jacket. It’s waterproof. Maybe that will make you feel a bit safer.”

They’d have to walk through the rain at least for a bit, and she could imagine how scary that had to be for someone who was only used to the kind of rain they had on the Boiling Isles, so she would have done just about anything to help Amity feel a bit less scared... but she also really wanted to show her friend how great the rain here was.

Luz loved the rain, and she wanted Amity to be able to experience it like she did.

Amity shot her a concerned look.

“...but what about you?”

The last thing she wanted was for Luz to get hurt.

Luz chuckled and shrugged.

“I’ll be fine. I actually really like feeling the rain on my skin.” Amity still looked at her skeptically. “...I can prove to you that it’s not dangerous, if you’ll let me. Just reach out into the rain, and I promise it won’t hurt you.”

Amity gulped.

“I don’t- I don’t think-”

Luz squeezed her hand and smiled at her.

“Don’t be scared. I swear it’s not dangerous. You know I’d never do anything to put you at risk, right?”

Amity looked into Luz’s sparkling eyes and knew she would follow this girl to the ends of the world if she asked her to.

“I do. I trust you,” she replied without a second of hesitation. 

Luz beamed, then got behind her, putting her arms around Amity and carefully cupping one of her friend’s hands in hers to reach out from under the roof into the rain.

“It’s going to be okay, I promise,” she whispered soothingly.

Amity could feel her friend’s warm breath on her neck. Her heart was racing from Luz being so close.

The green-haired witch resisted the urge to flinch back when Luz lifted their hands, and tried to focus her friend’s embrace instead.

Amity closed her eyes and took a deep breath.

_ ‘Luz would never hurt me.’ _

Still, she couldn’t help but brace herself for pain that never came.

After a moment, she felt a tickling sensation on her skin. When she opened her eyes again, she gasped, staring at the tiny drops of rain in her palm in amazement.

“See?”

Luz was still beaming at her, still holding Amity’s hand in both of hers.

“...wow,” Amity breathed, completely mesmerized for a moment. “It- it’s so cold.”

“Mhm.” Luz slowly let go of her, but never stopped to smile at her friend, reaching for Amity’s hand when she walked out from under the roof. “Walk out into the rain with me?”

The green-haired witch still hesitated for a moment, unable to tear herself from the picture of her crush standing there, in the middle of the rain. She was completely mesmerized.

Eventually, Luz’s hand in hers, she stepped out onto the sidewalk, again bracing herself for pain, but with every step she took, she got less anxious. The rain slid off the jacket harmlessly. The drops that ran down her hands felt cold, but not painful, and there was something absolutely incredible about the sensation.

“This feels really surreal... but also kind of amazing.”

“I can imagine.” 

Luz wasn’t exactly sure what she was doing – they probably should’ve been heading home before she got completely soaked, but right now, she didn’t care.

She hadn’t even realized just how much she’d missed the rain here while she’d been in the Boiling Isles... and now she kind of just wanted to enjoy it to the fullest, and wanted to make sure that Amity could do the same and didn’t have to be afraid of it anymore.

Not just because it was something she was hoping to make Amity happy with – okay, admittedly, it was  _mainly_ that, Luz loved doing things for Amity that made her happy –, but it was also kind of important in a sense that Amity really needed to learn it. If she was going to stay here for a couple of weeks, and with the weather probably being the kind of weather it always was at the beginning of September, it was very likely this was far from the last time she’d be confronted with rain.

Luz knew just the place she wanted to take Amity to teach her.

There was a small playground just a couple streets from where they were now.

Like she’d guessed, it turned out to be completely abandoned because of the rain when they got there.

She opened the door for Amity and grinned at her friend, bowing jokingly.

“After you, Mylady.”

Amity felt stupid for blushing at that. She should have gotten used to Luz’s overly dramatic gestures over the summer, but for some reason they still made her feel giddy with excitement every single time.

Meanwhile, Luz was having a minor existential crisis, because she was starting to question if all these little sentences she’d said directed at Amity in that tone had been semi-intentional flirting.

“Why did you bring me here?”

_‘Right. Back to the task at hand.’_ Luz took a deep breath, pushed these thoughts into the back of her mind for later and followed Amity onto the playground, her bold smile from earlier replaced by a way shyer one. “Rain’s really common in this realm. People would look at you strangely if they realized you were afraid of if. So I thought... maybe we should connect a positive memory to it.” She closed the door of the fence behind her and walked into the middle of the playground where it was nothing but grass in-between two goals for soccer. She extended one of her hands towards Amity. “Dance with me?”

And just like that, they were twirling each other around on the playground in the middle of the rain, slowly, careful to take it a bit easy because of Amity’s injury, and without any of the magic their Grom dance had held... but magic all the same. 

[la_fire_chicken_art](https://instagram.com/la_fire_chicken_art?igshid=1waz1ur9k0k9f)

  
  


  
By the time they stopped, Luz was soaking wet... but Amity’s breathless laughter made everything more than worth it.

“That was so much fun!”

Maybe this realm’s rain really wasn’t so bad.

_ ‘Amity’s laughing.’ _

The realization hit Luz very, very suddenly, and she felt a wave of relief and joy wash over her.

For the first time since her call with the twins, Amity was laughing again.

Luz felt so happy about that that she twirled her friend around one more time just for the heck of it, and then she tossed her arms around her and pulled her close.

Amity was so surprised by that she stumbled backwards, just barely able to steady herself when she returned the hug.

“What was that for?”

“I’m just... really glad you’re feeling a bit better.”

“Mainly because of you. Thank you, Luz.” Amity stared at her crush hesitantly for a moment, then pressed a quick kiss to Luz’s cheek. _“For everything.”_

“No problem!” Now Luz was the one with the squeaky voice for once, trying desperately not to think of that  _‘thank you’_ -cheek kiss as anything more than that while simultaneously trying not to pass out. “You didn’t need to- I mean, you didn’t have to- I mean- we should probably head home now,” she stuttered, extremely flustered.

“I know I didn’t have to. But I wanted to.” 

Amity smiled to herself, very proud of herself for that large step of progress, that, despite not quite being a confession, was more than she’d expected to be able to do today – or anytime soon, honestly. 

And despite Amity being pretty sure that Luz hadn’t realized the kiss was meant to be romantic, but maybe counting her reaction as a good sign, and despite Luz wanting it to be romantic but not daring to hope – someone you liked liking you back was something that only happened in fanfics and movies, after all –, both of them were walking on clouds all the way to the bus stop.

Luz and Amity could already hear Camila's voice basically as soon as Luz unlocked the door, despite them still being in the hallway – and staying there a bit longer to take off their shoes.

It was pretty easy to tell that she was extremely annoyed and not in a very good mood from the way she was speaking, although neither of the girls understood much before they opened the door to the living room.

“You better!” Camila groaned audibly as she hung up. “Dios mío, what a bunch of incompetent idiots...”

She just shook her head for a moment, then put the phone back into the charging station for the first time in almost two hours and sighed. That wasn’t how she’d imagined spending her second day off... but it was fine. It was good that at least  _that_ was sorted out now.

“Well that sounded like a pleasant phone call,” Luz commented when she and Amity entered the room. “Hi mom.”

Her mother turned around towards the two girls.

“Welcome home, you two.” She smiled at them, her mood instantly improving a bit, then gestured towards the phone and sighed. “Well, apparently the person in charge of looking into Amity’s identity yesterday was an intern on his first week. And guess what? If you have a person checking for personal information that actually knows how the freaking database works, finding her isn’t an issue.” She covered her eyes with her hand for a moment, then shrugged and looked back at the girls. “But since we got that sorted out, at least she’ll be able to go to school with you tomorrow, and she should have a replacement passport in one or two weeks.”

“Oh. That- that’s great,” Luz said, really surprised and confused because she wasn’t sure how exactly Amity could be in an American database since she didn’t exist in this realm, but really glad that this had somehow worked out, despite the fact that it shouldn’t have.

...that was something she should probably note and question at a later date, preferably when her mom  _wasn’t_ around.

Amity smiled at Camila.

“Thank you for making such an effort for me. You didn’t have to do that.”

“Maybe not. But I wanted to.” Camila smiled, shook her head and decided to focus on things other than endless bureaucracy-related phone calls – namely, on how much Amity was smiling. After everything that had happened, that was a fantastic sign. “How was the movie?”

“It was wonderful,” Luz said with a huge grin on her face. 

They’d spent the whole way home discussing it, and she still hadn’t quite processed that her ship was finally canon, which still made her incredibly excited... but all of that paled in comparison to the fact that Amity was finally able to laugh again. 

And Luz couldn’t even decide if the rain, the maybe-romantic-but-probably-not-kiss or the hand holding and being mistaken as Amity’s girlfriend during the movie had been her second favorite part of the evening.

...okay, so maybe she was a bit in love with her friend.

_ ‘Or very.’ _

Everything she’d realized about herself and the way she acted around Amity and thought about her since she’d had that conversation with her mom made it pretty much impossible to deny that.

The thought made her nervous, scared her, even, and she wasn’t sure what she was going to do about it – if she was going to do  anything, at least it wouldn’t be anytime soon –, but it  _was_ kinda nice to finally be able to place the butterflies in her stomach that had been there for quite a while now.

“It really was. It was a great movie. Also, Luz did everything she could to cheer me up, and she did a really great job. I’m eternally grateful for having her in my life.”

Amity smiled softly at Luz, looking at her with so much love in her eyes that Luz almost melted, and she was sure her heart had just skipped several beats.

“I’m so happy to have you in my life, too.” The human girl smiled shyly, then had to turn away and face her mom in order to fight the overwhelming urge to just walk right over to Amity and kiss her. They’d had a great evening. She wasn’t about to screw that up with her impulsive behavior. “We had a lot of fun together. This was a great idea. Thank you so much, mami.”

Luz hugged her mother, and Camila hugged her back after suppressing the shriek she almost let out when her daughter touched her. Luz’s clothes were so wet that they left wet spots where she’d touched her mom.

“Mija, you’re completely soaked.”

Luz rubbed the back of her neck and chuckled awkwardly.

“Whoops, sorry.”

Camila looked at her daughter, then at Amity, who, while not being quite as soaked as Luz, hadn’t stayed completely dry either.

“No need to apologize, but please go shower and change immediately. Both of you.”

Camila felt bad about not being able to pick them up now. She hadn’t realized how bad the weather was... but the two phone calls she’d gotten in the last hour had also been really important to get at least some things sorted out for Amity, so even if she had realized it, she wouldn’t have been able to make it.

“Okay. Amity can go shower first,” Luz replied immediately, like the gentlewoman her mom had raised her to be. “I’ll make us some tea in the meantime. ...after I’ve changed,” she added at her mother’s strict – but mostly just concerned – glance.

Camila shook her head.

“Don’t worry about the tea, I can do that. Please just go change while your friend showers, okay cariño?” She ruffled her daughter’s wet hair. “And maybe go find a towel for your hair.”

Luz smiled at her and hugged her again.

Despite her still very wet clothes, her mother didn’t complain. 

She just hugged her back, and the two of them remained that way for a bit, neither of them moving.

It was weird, but... it felt like they were a lot closer now than they’d been just a few days ago, despite the fact that not that much had changed between them.

“Okay, got it. Thanks, mom.”

Luz wouldn’t have admitted it out loud, but she was actually freezing – today had been among the colder days of early September, and in combination with the cold wind she’d been exposed to outside until a couple of minutes ago, the cold, wet clothes that stuck to her body were really getting to her.

Despite that, she didn’t regret anything – this had been tons of fun, and doing it with Amity had been even better.

Amity had already disappeared up the stairs by now – maybe because she’d been getting cold herself, or because she’d felt out of place, or maybe a mix of both of these things.

Amity came back downstairs in her – or, well, technically Luz’s – pajamas a while later. She gave her crush a quick nod, and Luz, who was now dressed in similar but noticeably less wet clothes than before, disappeared up the stairs to take a shower of her own while the green-haired witch sat down on the couch.

A moment later, Camila entered the room with two steaming cups of tea in hand.

“Luz told me you really like wild berry tea, so I made you one of those, I hope that’s okay.” She put the cup that was meant for Luz down on the table, then handed the other one to Amity. “Are you feeling any better?”

“I-” Amity managed a smile when she took the cup from Camila. The warm porcelain felt nice against her skin. The tea smelled and tasted as amazing as it always did. “I am, actually. Thanks to Luz, and to you. You’ve been so kind to me during the last couple of days, and you barely even know me.”

She took another sip, awkwardly staring into the cup instead of looking the adult in the eyes.

“Anytime, Amity. And like I said, if you need to talk to someone when Luz isn’t around, or for things that you can’t talk to Luz about... I’m here.” 

Amity almost started crying. 

She couldn’t remember the last time she’d felt so genuinely protected by and cared for by an adult.

Sure, her teachers liked her as a student, but she that wasn’t the same thing... and even Lilith, who she admired so much, had gone behind her back before, when she’d put the power glyph on Amity at the covention.

She’d felt really conflicted about that for a while afterwards, and these feelings had started resurfacing after Emira had used Lilith’s voice to cause Amity’s confidence to slump.

But since she was very far away from having to face her again at the moment, there was no use in dwelling on these feelings for now.

“Thank you, Ms. Noceda. I- I really appreciate that.”

The kinder this woman was to her, the more conflicted she felt about all the lies they’d told her. Luz was right, this world was very different from the Boiling Isles, and Amity wasn’t sure if Camila would have understood or liked the concept of her daughter learning to use magic, or the fact that she’d faced off against several different types of monsters all summer, so she understood why Luz didn’t want to tell her, and maybe she was right about this not being a good time to do it... but Amity couldn’t imagine someone who had taken in a stranger basically no questions asked doing anything to purposefully take away the sparkle in her daughter’s eyes.

Maybe Amity’s relationship with her own parents was too far broken to ever be fixed... but, even with how little she’d seen of the relationship between Luz and her mother in the last few days, she was almost certain that this one  _could be._

“You don’t need to thank me for that.” Luz’s mom gave Amity a warm smile, but what she said next made Amity’s blood run cold. “Oh, and I almost forgot to mention this, but your sister called earlier and promised to send over your legal documents as soon as she can, so we should hopefully have a lot of things sorted out very, very soon.”

“My- my sister called?” 

Amity was really,  _really_ certain that that shouldn’t have been possible. 

Since she hadn’t talked to the twins since the incident on the previous Sunday, she couldn’t know for sure what her siblings had been up to, but as far as she knew, communication between human devices and witch devices were impossible – and even if they  _hadn’t been,_ there was no way her siblings could have figured out the right phone number. 

_ ‘What’s going on here?’ _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Once again, thank you all so much for the massive amount of support you gave me, I’m so amazed by the sheer amount of comments I get every time and it’s just extremely motivating and touches me an insane amount. Also thank you all for your patience, I know it’s been a while since the last chapter.  
> Thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed this!  
> As always, feedback is extremely appreciated.
> 
> There’s more art now!  
> This one is actually official art for chapter five that I worked with the artist on which is now also in the chapter, make sure to give it some love on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGqmp-Lpp7m/?igshid=1caxrwxc6qf88  
> More beanie Amity: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGX4XQnHi0v/?igshid=1luniwcqt82ol  
> And in case someone feels like reliving some of last chapter’s gut punches, there’s an INCREDIBLE twelve page comic on Instagram, please give it some love: https://www.instagram.com/p/CGisNx1p8Rg/?igshid=ytzi5o1a1xi1  
> https://www.instagram.com/p/CGl9QvhJvjc/?igshid=t4lso78gqtcv
> 
> Also, reminder to follow me on tumblr because I post chapter sneak peeks there, and also always keep the readers updated when I’m approximately going to update in case the chapter is late.  
> https://the-lone-witch-and-secret-room.tumblr.com/
> 
> See you soon!


	10. (Nothing) Changes

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, first and foremost: I have a beta reader now! Isn’t that exciting?  
> Say hi to [tiredandjaded](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallingVersatile/pseuds/tiredandjaded) everyone!  
> She’s been an absolute angel helping me with this chapter and I couldn’t be more thrilled to have her, since aside from being the best beta I could ask for, she’s also my favorite Owl House author, and I am super honored to be working with her :D  
> For everyone that enjoys reading about Eda learning to be a good mom for Luz, I absolutely recommend checking out her [make my heart your home](https://archiveofourown.org/series/1937986)-series, I promise you won’t regret it!  
> Jade, thank you so, so much for your massive help, you’re absolutely incredible!
> 
> In other news:  
> Remember how I said I’m hoping the last chapter is going to be the longest of the story?  
> ...yeah, so much for that lmao. This chapter is somehow even longer than the last one.  
> Have fun reading, but also make sure you have time to read since it will take a while XD
> 
> Also, I realized I’d forgotten to mention this in the A/Ns before because I’m apparently a freaking idiot, but I’d settled on an idea of how exactly magic works in the human realm before YBOS aired and contradicted that, and I’m sticking to my original version. I’m not looking for an explanation for this, this story is simply going to be canon-divergent in that aspect :D
> 
> **Minor trigger warning for bullying and effects of bullying for this chapter and the next!**

“What do you mean my mom said your sister called her?”

Amity shrugged, just as confused as Luz was.

“I don't know, but that's what she told me! She said my sister was going to send over my legal documents.”

The two girls were sitting on Luz's bed once more, the door closed so that Camila couldn’t hear them.

Luz was just staring and slowly shaking her head now, her mind racing a thousand miles a minute.

“But you don't even _have_ legal documentation! None that would be accepted in this realm, anyway!”

This was scary. This was really, really freaking scary.

“And even if Ed and Em knew how to make a forgery—which they _shouldn’t,_ especially since they have no idea what this is actually supposed to look like,” Amity didn’t put general forgery beyond her siblings, but this would have required a lot more skill than the sick notes they faked occasionally, “Em's scroll wouldn't be able to call your mom's phone.”

“Yeah, there’s absolutely no way you’d be able to reach our landline with a magic scroll,” Luz confirmed.

“So... who was that?” Amity whispered, glancing around the room as if to check for someone watching them. She glanced at the open curtains, pulling them closed as fast as she could with shaking hands, almost throwing the plant off the windowsill in the process. “Oh. Sorry, plant.”

The two girls exchanged uneasy looks.

“Actually... you know what makes this even weirder?” Luz started, moving closer to Amity to ease her discomfort a little. “Your siblings called earlier. They said they wanted to talk to you about something... but I really doubt it was that.”

Luz had been thinking about a way to talk to Amity about that call anyway, and this was as good a time as any to bring it up. Despite still not knowing what Edric and Emira had hinted at, it had seriously freaked Luz out, and keeping it from her friend didn’t feel right to her.

Amity blinked.

“The twins called?” 

Luz nodded.

“Sorry for picking up, by the way, but I thought it might be important and my impulses kind of got the better of me,” she mumbled awkwardly, giving Amity an apologetic look. She hadn’t thought about it at the time, but that _had_ kind of been a breach of privacy... which she’d sworn not to do again after the diary incident. _‘God, I’m such a mess.’_

“It... it’s really okay.” Amity managed a small smile. If it had been the twins that had picked up a call for her, this would have been a different situation entirely, but Amity _trusted_ Luz, in a way she’d never trusted anyone in her life. “I know you just meant well.”

Amity felt a rush of guilt-tinged relief that she hadn’t been home to take the call. She still wasn’t sure how she’d react to hearing her siblings’ voices after their last conversation...

Amity backtracked a couple of words, the realization hitting her completely out of nowhere.

_‘...did I just think of this place as home?’_

When had she started considering Luz’s house her home?

Yet the more she thought about it... despite how much this unfamiliar environment freaked her out, and how much she wanted— _needed_ —to be back in the Boiling Isles, for her friends and her studies and her future... there were things she didn’t miss in the slightest.

She’d thought of her parents since she’d gotten here, sure, but only while worrying about disappointing them or her inevitable punishment. Not once had she actively wished to trade the lively dinners with Luz and her mom for the silent family dinners they held back at the manor, on the rare occasion that both of her parents were actually available to have dinner with their children.

Not once had she missed the sound of the heavy front door closing that announced her father’s arrival, or the sound of her mother’s heels on the wooden floor when she walked up the stairs. 

Amity didn’t miss the huge, empty manor, and the more she thought about it, the harder it was to convince herself she missed her parents _at all._

Wasn’t... wasn’t that a thing she was supposed to do? She knew Luz had missed Camila a ton over the summer. So why didn’t Amity miss her own parents? Why, when she thought of going home, did she think of school, or the library, or Willow and Gus, but not the place where she actually lived?

 _Thorns,_ she didn’t even miss her siblings as much as she should have—she missed them more than she did her parents, sure, but despite the fact that their relationship had improved recently, Amity still couldn’t help but second-guess their intentions sometimes.

She never had to do that with Luz. 

“I... might have yelled at Em a little,” Luz mumbled sheepishly. “I know you said not to get mad at her, but I couldn’t stop thinking about you crying in my arms and I just... lost it.”

Amity was more than a little touched by that, although she did feel bad about that being her initial reaction—Emira didn’t really deserve to be yelled at for going through with a plan Amity had come up with... even though what she’d said had hurt _immensely._

“It-it’s really sweet that you’re so protective of me.” 

She bit her lip and reached for Luz’s hand. The human girl slowly stroked her thumb across the back of Amity’s hand. 

“Well, you’re really important to me.” Amity blushed, and couldn’t help the smile that spread across her face. “So of course I’m protective of you.”

“That means a lot. Really.” Amity leaned against Luz slightly, letting out a soft sigh before returning to a topic she would much rather avoid. “How did Em react?”

“She...” Luz hesitated for a moment before mumbling, “she said she’s glad you have someone in your life that cares about you as much as I do.”

“Oh. Wow.”

That was... maybe the closest Amity could imagine her sister getting to straight up admitting she’d messed up.

“For what it’s worth... I think Edric and Emira are really sorry. I’ve never seen them as genuine and serious as during the chat we had.” Luz eyed the floor. She still felt awful for making Emira cry. “That doesn’t mean you have to forgive them, of course!” she added quickly. “You’re hurting right now and I’d never try and talk you into doing something you’re not ready for. But I just thought that’s something I should maybe let you know.”

“Okay,” Amity mumbled, her eyes watering a bit. That made her feel even worse about not wanting to talk to them... but she just didn’t feel up to it right now. She’d need more time to process everything before she’d be ready for an actual conversation. Instead, Amity pulled her scroll out of her pocket, unlocked it, opened the chat she shared with her sister... and nearly dropped her scroll as her hands started to shake. _‘I can’t do this.’_

This was stupid. It was just texting. She didn’t even have to look at them. And she knew the twins didn’t _mean_ any of what they’d said... _so_ _why was this so hard?_

“Hey.” Luz, immediately noticing the change in her friend’s mood, moved even closer and started gently stroking Amity’s head to comfort her. “Everything okay?”

“...no.” Amity handed the scroll over. “Would you mind texting Em and asking her about the call your mom got?” The floor was suddenly the most fascinating thing in the room as she struggled to force her next words out. “And also maybe telling her that I’m not ready to talk to her and Ed right now?”

“Oh, Amity...” Luz gently pulled her into a hug. “Of course I don’t mind.”

Amity felt relief wash over her—followed by an immense feeling of guilt.

“Thank you.”

Emira confirmed their suspicions that she hadn’t been the one to talk to Camila, leaving the girls to swap theories about who it had been instead, how they knew what was going on, and what their goal was.  
Unfortunately, they soon realized that without additional information, they wouldn’t figure anything out.

If that Emira-imitator really _would_ send them faked papers for Amity, maybe they could gain a couple clues from those once they arrived?

In the meantime, they’d keep an eye out for any possibly suspicious activity happening around them and not drive each other completely crazy discussing possibilities they couldn’t confirm or disprove either way.

As unnerving as that was, they had more important things to take care of right now that would lead to _actual_ results.

The most pressing issue being the changing of Amity’s bandages and application of new healing glyphs.

Luz glanced at the clock. 9:23 pm. 

_‘Perfect.’_

“How are you sure your mom isn’t gonna walk in this time?” Amity asked with a nervous glance at the door.

Luz smiled.

“There’s this really bad romcom series she likes that she always catches around this time when she doesn’t have to work late.”

“Ah. Okay.” 

Amity had no clue what this ‘romcom’ thing was supposed to be, or why it needed to be caught, but she already felt stupid constantly asking about everything, so she declined to bring it up. It probably wasn’t that important, anyway.  
She felt her heart race when Luz moved closer to her again. 

“So...” Luz looked at Amity and raised an eyebrow, slightly amused despite her lingering worry over the phone call. “Are you gonna take your shirt off?”

“OH YEAH, RIGHT!” Amity blushed, flustered at being caught spacing out like that. They’d done this several times now, and she was somehow still incredibly nervous each time. “Sorry,” Amity mumbled as she carefully pulled her shirt over her head.

Luz smiled at her, then gently removed the bandage to take a look at the injury.

The improvement, even from yesterday, was clear. Still, even though it was certainly healing faster than conventional medicine could have managed, Luz had hoped Amity would be fully healed at this point. To be fair, the wounds she’d treated over the summer had mostly been minor injuries, which this wasn’t, and neither of them had been a burn injury. For all she knew, this could be ahead of schedule.

Still, improvement was improvement. Amity was able to move around more easily again, and while she did still flinch during treatment, it was obvious that it didn’t hurt anywhere near as bad as it had when Luz had first treated it.

“There you go,” she whispered after she’d finished wrapping a fresh bandage around the injury and applied the glyphs. “How are you feeling?”

Amity, who looked like someone had dipped her head into a bucket of red paint, was quietly wondering if she’d ever stop becoming such a flustered mess when Luz touched her like this.

“Better. Thanks.”

She pulled the pajama top back over her head, hesitating but once again managing to find the courage to intertwine her fingers with Luz’s.

Was a gesture as small as that supposed to make her skin tingle as much as it did?

Physical contact came so naturally to Luz. Amity wondered if she could ever learn to be more like that.

Luz stroked Amity’s hand gently, and if it hadn’t been for everything Amity had on her mind right now, this moment would’ve been perfect.

The two sat in companionable silence for a few minutes. Eventually, Luz took out her phone and began to scroll lazily through it with her free hand, still tracing aimless patterns on Amity's skin with the other.

“Oh look! The author whose FanFiction we read posted a canon-compliant oneshot after they watched the movie. ...they work fast, wow.” Luz chuckled, pushing down her own worries in the hopes of distracting Amity from hers.. “Maybe we could read that?”

“Sure.”

Amity didn’t really feel up for it, but she refused to disappoint Luz by telling her that.

They started reading, but neither girl was able to truly immerse themselves in the story, preoccupied as they were with their respective troubles.

Just a couple of paragraphs in, both Luz and Amity sighed and said, almost simultaneously,

“I can’t seem to focus, sorry.”

“Listen, I’m sorry, but-”

They looked at each other and snorted.

“I’m pretty sure we’re both forgiven, then,” Luz chuckled, nudging Amity gently.

The green-haired witch managed a small smile. That she wasn’t the only one unable to focus made her feel slightly better.

“Yeah, guess so.”

Luz bookmarked the story for later, then put her phone away, giving Amity her undivided attention once more.

“Do you want to talk about what’s on your mind?”

Amity pushed all the things she wasn’t ready to confront into the back of her mind and mumbled, “I’m worried about tomorrow.”

That technically wasn’t even untrue, even if it wasn’t what was bothering her the most. 

She really was nervous about going to school here.

“Hey, it’s going to be okay, I promise.” Luz gave her hand a comforting squeeze—was it just Amity or was she being especially touchy today, even by Luz standards?—and smiled at her. “You can ask me anything you want if you think that will help make you feel better!”

Amity was almost certain Luz knew something else was up. That she didn’t press the issue, instead allowing Amity the space to bring it up on her own time, was something Amity appreciated immensely.

“Maybe that’s not a bad idea.”

  
  


And so, Luz spent the rest of the evening answering Amity’s questions about human school to prepare her for the following day.

Amity slept peacefully that night, the smell of wet grass, the sound of Luz’s beautiful laughter, and the feeling of a soft hand in hers filling her dreams.

Luz stayed up a bit later, telling herself that it was just because she wanted to make sure Amity was actually asleep and not suffering another nightmare before Luz slept herself... but really, it was a lot more than that.

The call with the twins had been worrying enough, but that someone had called her mom and pretended to be Emira was freaky on a whole new level. And even if she forced herself to not think of any of that, she found herself nervous about Amity seeing her school—or, more precisely, meeting her classmates. When her mom had first talked about it, Luz had been excited about the prospect of her friend going to school with her... but that had died down quickly after the sour reminder of how much school here sucked.

Amity’s arms around her were probably the only reason Luz eventually managed to fall asleep despite the pit in her stomach.

“It’s too early for this nonsense...”

Willow sighed as she walked towards her locker to pick up the books for her first class, mentally preparing herself for another day of hushed whispers about the Blight siblings haunting the hallways.

It hadn’t taken long for the rumors to start. 

Amity’s absence was something people noticed immediately, seeing as over the years, she’d built a reputation of dragging herself to school even when half-dead, not wanting to miss class unless absolutely necessary.

Willow could recall at least two separate occasions where Amity had passed out in class out of a stubborn refusal to go to the healer, and then stayed for the rest of the school day anyway, arguing that what she had wasn’t contagious so whether she stayed or not should be up to her.

If that in itself wasn’t enough, the fact that the twins hadn’t been seen all week really got people talking.

The twins skipped school all the time, but usually, when they did, there were sightings of them around town, or things went suspiciously awry in a way that had ‘Blight twin nonsense’ written all over it. That, or they just left illusion versions of themselves at school so they wouldn’t get in trouble for skipping—not that the other students thought they _could_ get into any real trouble in the first place, seeing how influential their parents were.

This time, none of that had happened, and people were taking notice.

_It was as if all of the Blight children had just disappeared overnight, and nothing remained of them but the hallway whispers..._

Titan, people were being way too dramatic about this.

“Do you really think Amity died?”

“I heard she got eaten by a Slitherbeast,” came the immediate reply, resulting in loud gasps.

Willow shuffled past the three guys from her grade as fast as she could, not even bothering to question where they’d gotten that information.

She shook her head as she opened her locker.

“These guys can’t be serious...”

This place was starting to feel less like a school and more like a ridiculously large game of whisper demon.

Sure, sometimes students got eaten, but that was nowhere near as likely as the occasional hallway rumors led to believe, and people blowing this situation out of proportion after barely three days was laughable.

But Amity, Edric and Emira were pretty well-known all throughout school, and since their parents were Coven leaders, their absence was significantly more interesting than that of the average witch high schooler.

Since Gus and Willow knew what had actually happened, these rumors were less concerning than mildly annoying, and they mostly just tuned them out—which was easy enough, because nobody asked them if they knew anything, despite the two of them being the closest ones to Amity before her disappearance.

Gossip was way more interesting than the truth, after all.

The books she needed in her arms, Willow was ready to walk to her Magic History class and slog through another mostly normal day at school before she could get back to her real work; the portal.

But unbeknownst to Willow, her world was about to turn just a little more upside down...

  
  


“Three weeks?! Okay, we’re officially screwed.”

Skara covered her eyes with her hands.

This was _really_ bad.

“Ugh, tell me about it,” Boscha groaned. “Dad’s super mad at me, and mom will probably turn this into some sad attempt to ‘bond with me’ or whatever. I swear, she’s gonna strangle me with her weird perception of affection until I lose my mind. I can’t _wait_ for the cast to come off again.”

Amelia shook her head in disbelief.

“I still can’t believe you broke your arm in two places.” 

The injury had looked bad when they’d taken her to the healer the day before, but this was even worse than they’d expected.

This whole situation felt weird to Amelia.

She had been playing alongside Boscha for quite some time now, and while there had been occasional injuries—that wasn’t surprising, Grudgby was a dangerous sport, after all—she couldn’t remember Boscha ever getting hurt this badly during training.

The team captain was reckless sometimes, sure, but she also wasn’t stupid. Winning a game might have been something she considered worth breaking a limb for under certain circumstances... but training? 

That wasn’t like her.

Not that that was any of Amelia’s business, though.

Boscha groaned.

“Ugh, yeah, me neither. There isn’t really much I can do about it now, though, other than wait for it to heal.”

Skara sighed. 

Since Boscha was their best player, this whole situation would have been bad enough even if they’d _had_ a proper replacement... but since Cat was unavailable at the moment, they didn’t even have that. 

“So... not to point out the obvious, but what are we gonna do about the game next week if you can’t play?”

They were just a couple games away from qualifying for the championship, too...

This sucked.

“I mean, we could just ask Amity for help, right? It would be a little awkward, but she’s a good player. I’m sure we could convince her to fill in for you for a bit. Even if we’re not exactly friends anymore,” Amelia suggested.

“Good idea, Mel. Small problem though: Amity is nowhere to be found.”

Amelia’s shoulders slumped. 

“Oh. Right.”

Even if Skara was pretty sure the hallway rumors were at least a _little_ more dramatic than what had actually happened, the fact remained that Amity had been missing from school all week. 

And since she’d blocked them all on Penstagram following the Grudgby incident about two months ago, reaching out to her that way wasn’t an option.

The memory of that incident did prompt an idea, though.

Skara contemplated it for a moment, knowing full well that Boscha would be less than thrilled about the suggestion, but decided that it beat letting all their hard work this year go to waste.

“Maybe we could ask Willow for help.”

Boscha reacted... about as well as Skara had expected.

“Uh, I’m sorry, can you repeat that? My hearing must have been damaged yesterday as well, because I could’ve sworn you just suggested replacing me with _Half-a-Witch of all people.”_

“Maybe I did,” Skara shot back immediately.

The more she thought about it, the more convinced she became that that was a great idea. Even outside of Grudgby, having Willow on the team would have its perks—if it turned out anything _had_ actually happened to Amity, Willow and Gus were the people most likely to know outside of the twins, so getting on her good side for once probably wouldn’t be such a bad idea...

“I mean, she did play pretty well during our game earlier this summer...” Amelia piped up, but was silenced by a deadly glare from Boscha almost instantly.

“Wow, Skara, your sense of humor has reached its peak really early today! Letting Half-a-Witch take my place on the Grudgby team... that might just be the funniest joke you’ve made all year.” She let out the most forced laugh Skara had ever heard and wiped a non-existent tear away before glaring at her best friend. “That loser? On _our_ team? Titan, no. Forget it. You’ve gone mad if you’re seriously suggesting that. **_I’d play with a broken arm before letting that happen!”_ **

Skara rolled her eyes.

“You’re being a little dramatic about this, don’t you think? Even if you wanted to, that isn’t an option. A player with a broken arm is totally useless. You’d only get in our way. Also, Aly would rip my head off if I let you play despite the injury. No thank you.”

 _“Don’t you_ **_dare_ ** _bring my sister into this!”_

Trying to argue with Boscha when she was like this was usually a lost cause, but Skara didn’t back down.

“I wouldn't _have_ to bring your sister into this if you would stop being so ridiculous! We're down a team member, Amity is missing in action, and we all saw Willow pull off that Thorn Vault— _without_ an injury this time.”

Skara was tired of this. The solution here should have been obvious, _but of course things could never be that easy if they involved Boscha._

“Yeah, except for the one Boscha caused,” Amelia mumbled quietly.

The potion track-witch clenched her fists.

“Listen, I can _maybe_ consider forgiving you for making the suggestion to replace me with _her_ ,” she said in Skara’s direction, completely ignoring Amelia. “You probably hit your head somewhere, because that’s the only reason I can think of why you’d suddenly forget all about Half-a-Witch being a total loser and think of her as a worthy replacement for me.” Boscha’s voice was shaking with anger, though it sounded a touch more unhinged than even her usual scorn. “All you have to do is take back your suggestion and beg for forgiveness, and then everything can go back to normal. Otherwise...”

She trailed off, but her tone spoke volumes.

Under different circumstances, that threat might have worked... but not this time. They’d worked too hard for how far they’d gotten to lose to Boscha’s ego rather than a different team.

Skara refused to let her best friend ruin this for them.

“You know what? No.” She crossed her arms and looked Boscha straight in the eyes. “Aside from Amity, Willow is the best player I can think of right now. So if you don’t have a better idea, I’m going ask her.”

As luck would have it, Willow was standing by her locker not too far from them at the moment, and Skara was prepared to follow through...

If Boscha _had_ had a better idea, she would’ve suggested it a long time ago, and they all knew it.

She was just desperately grasping at straws at this point.

“I... Honestly, playing with just two people would be better than playing with _that loser_ on the team!”

Skara blinked.

“You’re kidding me.” That wasn’t a solution to their problem, but it _was_ a surefire way to get disqualified. “Why are you so against this, anyway? Look, I know we’re not exactly best friends with Willow, but right now, she’s our best shot. Can’t hurt to at least ask.” Skara raised an eyebrow at her best friend’s strange expression. “What, are you scared?”

Boscha took just a bit too long to react, but when she did, she rolled her eyes and scoffed in her usual manner.

“Of Half-a-Witch? Yeah, right.” She glared at Willow in displeasure as if to stress her point. “I just don’t like the thought of her lack of experience dragging down the team.”

Her tone differed slightly from how it usually sounded, with what was probably regret over not being able to play herself, mixed with something different that Skara couldn’t quite place... which wasn’t really surprising.

Boscha had always been a difficult person to read.

“I don’t think it will. Not any more than you and your broken arm would, anyway. We don’t have much to lose, do we?” Skara smirked at her best friend teasingly. “Besides, those are bold words coming from someone whose team she almost beat during her very first game.”

“She did not!” Boscha’s angry shriek was enough for Skara to decide not to push her friend any further—poking fun at Boscha was like playing with fire if she was having a bad day, and Skara knew better than to cross the line between amusing and actually dangerous. “You’re delusional if you think that loser and her friends ever stood the slightest chance of beating us.”

Skara shook her head.

 _‘And you’re calling_ **_me_ ** _delusional...’_

She never would have said that out loud—she didn’t have a death wish—but it was honestly just sad that Boscha was spending a longer time nursing her hurt ego over this than over games they’d _actually_ lost.

It had almost been two months, for crying out loud! A good player should be able to compliment someone else’s abilities, train harder and move on with their life otherwise. It was embarrassing to watch at this point...

“Okay, listen,” Skara said instead, and her tone made it clear that this was a decision and no longer a discussion. “We literally have nothing to lose at this point. And it’s your own fault we need a replacement in the first place. Cat told us weeks ago that she’d not be able to play replacement for the next couple of games. I told you not to try that dumb move! It’s not my fault you broke your arm doing it!” She crossed her arms. “I’m going to ask Willow for help, whether you like it or not.”

Boscha was fuming.

“Skara, if you do this, you’re off the team, you hear me?!”

The bard-track witch shrugged.

“Sure! Get rid of another team member! That’s really helpful right now!”

At this point Amelia, who usually stayed out of Skara’s and Boscha’s squabbles and had mostly been holding back during this one, cut in.

“If you’re willing to let the team be disqualified after how far we’ve come, just because you’re too petty to let Willow play, maybe you’re the one who should be off the team.”

Boscha went uncharacteristically quiet at that. 

Skara decided that was the closest they were going to get to their team captain's permission, and began to walk towards Willow. Amelia followed right behind her, while Boscha remained frozen in place.

“Couldn’t have said it better, Mel. Thanks for backing me up.” 

Amelia shrugged.

“Her attitude has gotten _so_ much worse since the Amity incident, I swear. She had it coming.”

All they had to do now was ask their classmate for help—and if that didn’t work, it was back to the drawing board. 

“Hey Willow!”

The plant-track witch spun around, her books clutched to her chest, and looked at the two approaching girls in surprise.

“Uh... hi?”

Willow lifted an eyebrow and eyed Skara skeptically. She was tense, as she usually was around Boscha and her clique, but she fought down her first instinct to flee in favor of just the slightest bit of curiosity about what was going on.

Ever since their Grudgby match, Hexside’s resident mean girls had been treating Willow differently... they certainly weren’t associating with her, but they weren’t tormenting her like they used to, either. On a few occasions, Willow could have sworn she’d caught one of them looking at her with a weird sense of respect. 

The obvious exception being Boscha, who Willow was pretty sure hated her guts even more now—if that was even possible—but who had so far been unwilling to act on it as much without her friends backing her up.

Luz’s plan hadn’t worked the way it was meant to... but, ironically, it still kind of had.

_‘Titan, I really miss her.’_

For the most part, Boscha’s posse just left Willow alone now.

...which made it even weirder that Skara and Amelia now wanted to talk to her all of a sudden.

“We need your help.”

Willow blinked. She must have misheard.

“You need my _what?”_

The irritation in her voice was hard to miss. Whatever this was about, Willow didn’t trust it—despite them treating her slightly better lately, there was a huge gulf between actively bullying someone and considering them worthy enough to ask them for help with _anything._ More likely, the effects of the Grudgby match had finally worn off and the girls now had some elaborate plan to mess with her for fun.

But, against her better judgement, Willow stayed. If they were really planning to mess with her again, she wasn’t just going to run away this time... and she supposed that on the _very_ slim chance that their request was genuine, she might as well hear them out.

Willow set her books down on the floor—she preferred to have her hands empty, in case she needed to work some quick magic with the flower seeds she was carrying around for her afternoon classes.

“We’re... in a bit of a situation right now.”

Amelia gestured towards Boscha, who was standing a bit away from them—but still in hearing distance—and looked like she was about to light someone on fire.

Willow grew even more tense, so much so that, for a moment, she didn’t even notice the cast on their other girl’s arm.

And then she did.

“Oh. Ouch.” She cocked her head, still extremely confused. “But what does that have to do with me?”

“You see...” The way Skara was speaking seemed almost awkward, which was weird considering how bold and confident she usually seemed. “As it is, Boscha won’t be able to play for at least the next game, maybe longer, which really sucks because Cat is dealing with... some personal stuff right now and Grudgby is the absolute last thing on her mind. Which means we’re down a player and don’t have a replacement.”

“So, we were wondering if you’d... uh...” Amelia rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. “If you’d be willing to, y’know, fill in for her for a bit?”

Willow’s eyes widened.

“...you want me to replace Boscha on the Grudgby team?” Willow repeated. She couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. _“Me?”_

...that explained why Boscha looked about ready to murder someone, at least.

“Well, yeah! Cat asked you to join our team after our match for a reason! You were really good.”

Willow pinched herself slightly. 

The fact that _Skara_ of all people was complimenting her, and actually seemed to mean it, was... completely insane.

She didn’t wake up.

_‘Not a dream, then.’_

Willow remained wary.

“I don’t know...”

Even if those two looked genuine, that wasn’t a guarantee they actually meant it, and even if _they_ did, she’d still have to hang out around Boscha, which wasn’t a very comforting thought.

“If you don’t want to, we totally understand,” Amelia said. “It would be amazing if you’d be willing, but I know we’re not... friends, or whatever, and we haven’t exactly been very nice to you so far.”

“Oh.” That was... surprisingly thoughtful. _‘I’m not actually considering this, am I?’_

On one hand, Willow knew she didn't owe these girls anything. They'd been making her life miserable for most of their shared school careers, after all. 

On the other hand... this was the first time any of them had actually expressed regret over it. 

Willow considered herself a pretty good judge of character, and Amelia certainly seemed genuine. If Skara and Amelia actually meant it, maybe she could give them a chance to prove it—and even if they didn’t, getting to show off how powerful her magic had become would hopefully be enough to convince them they were better off leaving her alone in the future.

_‘And also...’_

Willow glanced over at Boscha, who still hadn’t stopped glaring at her.

If she could pull this off, Willow would get to prove to Boscha and her friends that her last Grudgby performance hadn’t just been a fluke. And also possibly rub it in Boscha's face forever that Willow had saved their championship run.

...that last thought was way more tempting than it probably should have been.

Surprisingly, this deal actually had more potential upsides than she’d first assumed. Maybe agreeing to it wasn’t a completely terrible idea?

Before she could reach a conclusion, her thoughts were interrupted by her best friend yelling her name from halfway across the hallway.

“Willow!” Gus ran up to her, placing himself just a bit in front of her and eyeing Skara and Amelia angrily. Despite the fact that his body language made it obvious he was scared, he spoke up. “Leave her alone! Don’t you have better things to do than picking on us all day? Go away!”

The girls didn’t appear to be especially threatened, and Gus felt himself shrinking even more under their—surprisingly less malicious than confused—gazes, but he didn’t move.

He wouldn’t let them hurt Willow again.

“Uh...”

Willow put a hand on her friend‘s shoulder.

“Hey Gus? It’s okay. They’re actually not bothering me... for once.” She smiled at him. “Thanks, though. I appreciate you looking out for me.”

“Always.”

He stayed at her side, still glaring at the Grudgby team suspiciously.

Maybe that was what pushed Willow to make her final decision. 

There were a lot of aspects to this that might have been enough reason for her to agree, but Gus had just given her one more.

As long as she could think, the two of them had looked out for each other—they’d always had each other’s backs, and that was amazing, and she wouldn’t trade his support for the world, but it also meant that Gus had taken damage for her quite a few times, and she felt terrible for that.

Gus was like the little brother she’d never had, and him getting hurt just because he was friends with her was the last thing she wanted.

If the others stopped picking on her for good, Gus wouldn’t be caught in the crossfire anymore—and hopefully the same would be true for Luz, once they found a way to get her back.

“Okay. I’ll play replacement for a bit.” She raised her finger before any of the others could reply. “Under one condition.”

“Not to sound desperate, but I’ll do literally _anything.”_

Skara begging for her help was maybe the weirdest thing that had happened to Willow all year, and after the summer she’d had, that was _really_ saying something.

“It’s not something _you_ can do.”

She glanced in Boscha’s direction.

“Got it.” Skara turned to her best friend and shouted across the hallway. “Hey Boscha, get over here, we need you for this!”

Boscha rolled her eyes and stomped over.

“Ugh, what do you want? You guys sacrificing your dignity in a sad attempt to woo Half-a-Witch is embarrassing enough to watch from a distance.”

“Can you, like, calm down and just listen to Willow for a second?” 

Skara put a hand on Boscha’s left shoulder, her grip firm, her voice stern to stress that what she was saying wasn’t actually a question.

“Yeah, and don’t call her that,” Amelia chimed in.

“What she said!” Gus agreed, watching Boscha warily, ready to do—well, _something_ —if she tried messing with his friend again.

“It’s fine. This actually makes for a pretty good example.” Willow smirked, then glared pointedly at Boscha. “That right here? That is _exactly_ what I’m not ready to deal with if I’m going to be on the team. Here’s my condition, Boscha. You’re going to treat me with basic decency—no threats, no insults, no snarky comments, no mean nicknames, no mimicking me to make fun of me and no throwing stuff at me _or_ my friends. If you violate any of these terms, even a single time, I’m quitting the team and you can go find a different replacement.” Willow crossed her arms, not breaking eye-contact with Boscha for even a single second. She would show neither doubt nor fear; Boscha had caused her enough of that as it was. “I’m done letting you trample around on my confidence just because you feel like it. The only reason I’m considering this to begin with is that I’m a nice person, and your friends seem like half-decent people when not under your heel, but I have better things to do than helping out people who will only make me miserable in return.”

Despite the fact that Willow’s heart was racing at the words—telling Boscha off was something she wasn’t used to, and it was as terrifying as it was exhilarating—her voice remained steady and firm.

She would not be budging on this.

Willow was done being the scared little girl that had let Boscha walk all over her for years.

If she was going to help the others, it would be on _her_ terms.

Skara nodded.

“That seems more than fair to me.” She looked at Boscha. “You _can_ pull yourself together and be nice to Willow for a couple weeks, right?”

The undertone of the second sentence was anything but friendly, and none of them missed that.

Boscha kept glaring at Willow... but she didn’t say no.

Gus raised an eyebrow.

“Are we sure she knows how to do that?”

Willow had to bite her lip to keep herself from laughing. Gus’ tone wasn’t even mean, it sounded like a genuine question, which was even funnier.

Skara of all people started snickering.

“Yeah, yeah, very funny!” Boscha growled. If looks could kill, the hallway would’ve been a bloodbath; as it was, it just served to underline how much work Boscha had to do on her attitude. “I can be nice, you know!”

Willow gave her a doubtful look.

“I’ll believe it when I see it,” she replied coolly.

The screaming bell reminded them they all had a class they needed to get to. 

Willow picked up her books again.

“I don’t have time today, but... Meet us on the Grudgby field half an hour after school tomorrow?” Skara suggested quickly as they headed in the direction of the classroom.

Willow nodded.

“I’ll be there.”

“Don’t be late.”

Boscha gave her a warning glance, and because Willow was feeling bold today, she rolled her eyes in return.

Amity was pretty sure that she was getting the hang of bus rides, albeit slower than she would have liked. The one back from the cinema had been pretty terrifying—although Luz holding her hand the entire time had helped—but this one wasn’t nearly as bad, despite the fact that this bus was pretty crowded and they were forced to stand and hold onto the support straps rather than sit.

Now, Amity was only a _little_ worried every time the bus lurched or made an unexpected noise. 

The actually upsetting part about having to stand was that, despite desperately wanting to reach for Luz’s hand to calm herself down a little, Amity couldn’t. She was certain that if she didn’t hold onto the straps tightly with both hands, she would fall over and pull Luz down with her, and that was not how she wanted to start their first day of school together.

Maybe, one day, she could do that again, once she felt confident enough in her abilities to not land flat on her face in the middle of the bus...

Once they got off at their stop, Amity actually got to _see_ Luz’s school for the first time—she didn’t remember much from the first time she’d been here. Amity had been so distracted thinking about the twins and school back in the Boiling Isles that she’d just followed Camila around like a lost hellhound puppy, barely noticing her environment.

The school building looked _weird_ —it was pretty small in comparison to the schools in the Boiling Isles, had no towers, and it noticeably lacked any watchful eye like the one Hexside had.  
Wasn’t that dangerous?

Luz had explained by now that the Human realm lacked the monsters Amity was so used to, but the idea of anybody being able to just walk into school without passing the judgement of an all-seeing eye still seemed unsafe to her.

And it wasn’t just the building that was unusual—everyone here looked extremely similar. No towering demons or diminutive fairies in the hallways, no person with more or less than two eyes or extra limbs... and Amity’s hair color stood out in a way it never would have in the Boiling Isles, with only one or two people they passed having an equally colorful one.

It would take some time for Amity to get used to all this...

“...and that’s your locker,” Luz concluded her small tour of the school a little while later. “It’s right next to mine because the person that had that one apparently graduated last year, which is pretty nice.”

They’d have all of their classes together, so the chances of them getting separated were pretty slim anyway, but Amity certainly didn’t mind being close to Luz.

The locker was missing teeth—which maybe shouldn’t have surprised Amity anymore by now, because things that were supposed to have teeth not having any seemed to be kind of a pattern here... but it still did, because these were _lockers,_ and what would keep someone from opening them and stealing another person’s stuff if the locker didn’t bite every person that attempted that?

Amity tried tickling it, prompting no effect from the locker, but an adorable snort from Luz that was almost worth embarrassing herself for.

“...you told me how to open these yesterday and I forgot, didn’t I?”

“Maybe,” Luz chuckled, “this was very cute to watch though.”

That stopped Amity dead in her tracks. She remained frozen for several seconds as she attempted to recover from Luz just randomly calling her _cute._

The smirk Luz was giving her to go along with it _almost_ made Amity think she might’ve meant something by it.

Amity covered up her awkwardness with an even more awkward cough and smiled back at Luz, hoping her friend wouldn’t notice the flush still lingering in her cheeks.

“So, uh... how do I actually open this?”

“It has a code lock. You can set it up yourself, just choose a combination of numbers you remember easily that aren’t that easy to guess, like the date of your birthday or something.”

Amity cringed at the thought—she had _some_ fond memories of her birthday, but many more she would rather forget, and the last thing she wanted was to look at that date almost every day. 

Instead, she entered a different combination, almost certain it was just a random number that she’d memorized for no reason until she looked at all numbers together and realized it was, in fact, the date of Luz’s birthday.

_‘Whoops.’_

Another blush crept across her cheeks and _Titan, at this point she was pretty sure the next few weeks would be the death of her._

Amity considered changing the combination again, but ended up sticking with it. It was about as secure as any other, and there was no way she’d be forgetting that one.

She put the books she didn’t need into the locker, her bag’s weight reduced drastically afterwards.

“Now just click your lock shut again, and we’re good to go!”

“Got it!” It was incredibly cute how enthusiastic Luz was about explaining all these basic aspects of her world—Amity would have felt stupid for lacking so much basic knowledge, but the fact that Luz seemed to not mind, or even _enjoy_ explaining everything to her friend made Amity feel a lot better. “We still have some time left before class, right?”

Luz nodded. Since showing her friend around hadn’t taken as long as she’d expected it to, they had some spare time.

“The first one won’t start for another half an hour. But it can’t hurt to head to the classroom early!”

“Yeah, sure!” Amity gave her crush a shy, nervous smile. “I’m really curious what your friends are like. Do you think they’ll like me?”

Luz froze, her heart dropping to her stomach. That sentence, casual and innocent as it was, ripped the girl’s heart to shreds with the reminder of everything this world _wasn’t_ , and everything Luz wasn’t to this world.

...she’d never talked to Amity much about home outside of how much she missed her mom, had she?

 _‘Amity doesn’t know how much of a loser nobody I am here.’_ Luz was sure she’d talked to Gus and Willow and Eda about not having friends back home—but apparently she’d conveniently forgotten to mention it to Amity. A selfish part of her still wanted to keep it to herself, embarrassing as it was, but she couldn’t exactly make any nonexistent friends appear out of thin air... “I...” She bit her lip and gulped, but forced the words out despite the dread she felt. “I actually don’t have any.”

Amity stared at her in disbelief.

“You... you’re joking, right?” Luz shook her head. Her eyes sparkled with tears she hadn’t cried, and she looked so unbearably ashamed of herself that it made Amity feel sick. _‘That can’t be right.’_

Amity couldn’t imagine any world where someone as amazing as Luz, someone who lit up every room she walked into and improved every life she touched just by _being her incredible self,_ someone who had managed to befriend Amity herself despite her unbearable attitude and the harshness she’d shown Luz at the beginning... would struggle to make friends.

It was unthinkable to her.

“People here don’t like me,” Luz admitted.

The resigned look of defeat on her face nearly broke Amity’s heart.  
Luz had comforted her so much, she had to do something. 

Amity gently wrapped her arms around her friend, pulling Luz close.

“Well, then the people here are all freaking idiots.”

Luz allowed herself a relieved sigh and leaned into the hug. The admission had made her stomach twist into knots, but Amity had reacted with more kindness and sympathy than Luz had dared to hope for.

She even managed to hold her tears in check when she let go of Amity.

 _‘That’s a start,’_ Luz thought as she slowly got the books for the next few lessons from her locker, keeping them on her arms because she was too lazy to open her bag to put them inside.

Maybe today wouldn't be so bad, after all. 

They hadn't even run into Ben yet!

Luz looked up to see a shock of curly black hair at the other end of the hallway and cursed her optimism.

 _‘Please don’t see us, please don’t see us, please don’t see us,’_ she repeated in silent prayer.

She tried her hardest to blend in with the other students, hiding behind a smaller group in the middle of the hallway... but to no avail.

Luz could hear the smirk in his voice as he called out from across the hallway.

“Well, well! Look who it is!”

Luz felt sick, her remaining lightheartedness disappearing behind the dark, looming clouds that made up her school routine.

Her entire body tensed up, shivers running down her spine.

She wanted to turn on her heel and run, but she knew that would only have resulted in even more laughter aimed her way, and even if it hadn’t... she was like a deer caught in the headlights under his gaze. Her body wouldn’t budge, no matter how much she tried to force it to.

Her tormentor walked up to them, the grin on his face only growing broader with every step.

“Hi Ben.”

Luz stared at the floor as she forced the words out, her voice extremely monotone.

For the first time since returning to this realm, Luz found herself wishing Amity hadn’t come after her for purely selfish reasons—because the only thing worse than having to deal with her bully was having Amity around to see it.

Finally managing to shake the frozen state, Luz attempted to dodge back towards the lockers, but Ben didn’t let her off the hook that easily. He walked straight up to her, then deliberately bumped into her, pushing her right against one of the lockers. She lost her grip on the stack of textbooks, her heart sinking in despair as they spilled to the floor with a painfully attention-drawing clatter.  
Luz didn’t even need to look to know that other students were staring.

“Watch it, freak!”

His voice was incredibly hostile, as if it had been her fault rather than a game he'd been playing for years.

Luz blurted out a quick apology as she kneeled down to pick up her books again.

Her shoulder throbbed a bit, but that wasn’t even the worst part.

_‘I can’t believe Amity just saw that...’_

Luz was absolutely mortified.

She slowly started gathering the books she had dropped—anything, _anything_ to keep herself from looking up and seeing the expression on Amity’s face.

There was something about the Boiling Isles that had given Luz an amount of confidence she’d never had before... and apparently, she’d left it there once she stepped through the portal again.

Here, Luz wasn’t fearless, or even brave.

Not only couldn’t she manage to stand up to Ben or any of his friends that picked on her... she couldn’t even bear to see Amity’s reaction to her being pushed around like this.

Luz could feel the tears building in the corners of her eyes and knew she was seconds away from crying..

_‘God I’m such a coward.’_

Then, she felt a comforting hand on her shoulder.

“Luz! Luz, are you okay?” Amity had kneeled down next to her and proceeded to gently cover Luz’s hands with hers after letting go of her shoulder. “Here, let me help you with that.”

The green-haired witch started piling up the books neatly.

When Luz looked up at her crush with blurry vision, she found kind eyes full of nothing but concern looking back at her.

Amity’s breath caught in her throat when she realized Luz was crying.

Amity’s first instinct was shoving the book pile aside to give Luz an impromptu hug. 

Her second instinct, after holding the sobbing Luz and rubbing her back for a couple of seconds, was far less friendly.

She could hear Ben laughing from a couple feet away, and it made her blood boil in an instant.

She slowly let go of Luz, hands clenched into fists as she got up.

“I’m going to end this guy,” Amity growled, and the expression on her face was by far the scariest Luz had ever seen on her—including the time the green-haired witch had absolutely lost it the day they’d first met.

“Amity, wait-”

But nothing could have held Amity back right now. 

She was absolutely livid. 

“Hey, you!”

Ben, who was standing by his own locker by now, turned around to face her. He was almost a head taller than her. Amity was sure this would-be bully probably thought himself very intimidating. 

Unfortunately for him, Amity had spent her whole life dealing with people like Boscha. It would take a lot more than some gangly jerk who hit his growth spurt early to scare her.

“And who are you, Little Witch Academia?” The guy grinned at her, the glint in his blue eyes taunting her, and apparently felt very smart over the jab at—what exactly, even? Her hair? Amity wasn’t sure. “I can’t believe that loser actually has a friend now. ”

This guy was _asking_ to be punched.

But despite it being pretty tempting, Amity held back on that, because starting a fistfight on her first day of school probably wasn’t the greatest idea.

Instead, she crossed her arms and looked him straight in the eyes.

“First of all, that’s a show, not a person. If you’re referring to my hair, I’m pretty sure you actually mean Azura, who is from a completely different franchise—or maybe Diana? But honestly, it’s more a compliment than an insult either way? That you obviously don’t even know who either of these people are is kind of embarrassing, and just adds to the fact that this is the most pathetic attempt at an insult I have ever heard in my life.” 

The guy looked at her in surprise. Apparently he wasn’t used to being talked back to, and had expected her to be more scared of him after his laughable comment.

That someone like him even dared to breathe into Luz’s general direction, let alone make fun of her, made Amity boil with rage.

“You-”

Amity, who had been waiting for him to try and respond, immediately cut him off, not particularly interested in whatever half-baked insult he had next.

“What? Was that supposed to intimidate me? That’s honestly just sad.” She glared at him. “Do you pick on others so that people don’t see how insecure you are? Big, tall guy doesn’t want to feel small, so he makes others even smaller? Does that make you feel better?”

He planted himself in front of her threateningly, shaking with anger.

“Listen, I have no idea who you think you are, **new girl,** but let me explain something to you about how this school works.” His tone was dark, but compared to the venom her parents spat her way, it was about as intimidating as a nursery rhyme. “If you want to immediately destroy your school life by befriending the little social outcast over there? Fine. That’s on you. But if you think you can talk to me like that-”

“What’s this gonna be? One of those ‘you have no idea who I am’ speeches? I frankly couldn’t care less. But NOBODY gets to talk to Luz that way.” Amity growled and poked a finger at his chest. He flinched back slightly. “She’s the most amazing person I have ever met, and you don’t even deserve to breathe the same air as her. If you can’t see that? Your loss. _But if you touch so much as a single hair on Luz’s head ever again, you’ll regret it bitterly,_ **_got it?!”_**

What she did next was far from the smartest decision she could have made, but her impulse control was severely weakened by the fact that Luz—kind, sweet, incredible Luz who had somehow managed to make Amity _laugh_ when she’d felt unable to remember what happiness even was—was crying on the floor behind her. 

By some miracle, she didn’t rip the guy to shreds right then and there... but she couldn’t keep herself from surreptitiously drawing a tiny, blue spell circle behind her with her free hand.

Her eyes turned pitch-black and her tongue into that of a snake, and she hissed at him, opening her mouth wide enough for him to see her fangs. The illusion just lasted for a couple of seconds, but that was enough to send this cretin stumbling back in terror, bumping into the locker behind him.

_“What are you?!”_

His voice was shaking.

“If you leave Luz alone, the only thing I’m going to be is the new girl.” Amity made a point of showcasing her sharp teeth with a nasty grin. “If you don’t, I’m **gladly** going to become your worst nightmare.”

“Stay-stay away from me!” he shrieked.

The cold metal of the locker suddenly felt like ice against his back. He panicked even more as his eyes darted across the school hallway, desperately searching for a way out.

Amity was kind enough to back away just slightly so he could make a run for it, grinning and waving at him tauntingly.

“Bye, Ben! Pleasure to meet you!”

Amity thought about tripping him as he rushed past her, just to _really_ send a message... but she decided to hold back on that. 

For now, at least.

If he _did_ bother Luz again, however... Amity couldn’t guarantee anything.

After watching the would-be bully disappear down the hall (you never turned your back on someone you had just threatened; that was common sense), Amity was able to turn her full attention back to her friend.

Luz was still sitting on the floor—she wasn’t crying anymore, just staring, her mouth slightly agape.

“Luz?”

Amity kneeled down beside her again.

“I’ve never seen him scared of anything,” Luz whispered, kind of amazed. “How did you do that?”

“Just a little illusion magic,” Amity whispered, flashing Luz a grin. She was certain nobody but Ben had seen it, and it wasn’t like anyone was going to believe him if he claimed the new girl was a demon. “The twins used to do this little trick to startle me when I was little, where they would pretend they were possessed. Black eyes, snake tongue... stuff like that. Eventually I taught myself how to use it, and while scaring them back like I wanted to didn’t really work, at least I wasn’t scared of it anymore once I mastered it.”

Luz looked up at her and shook her head. There was a disbelieving smile on her face.

“That probably wasn't a great idea, but... it was very sweet of you.” Luz's smile dropped. “No one's ever done that for me before.”

“Well, get used to it—I won’t let anyone ever hurt you again.” Amity smiled at Luz and pulled her into another hug. _‘Is that why you always stand up for everyone else? Because you want to give others something you always longed for?’_

When the two of them broke the hug and got up—Luz had shoved her books into her bag this time—Amity’s legs were so wobbly she nearly toppled back to the floor.

Luz managed to steady her just in time, a worried look on her face as she gently slipped an arm around Amity’s shoulder to help her stand.

“Hey, you okay?”

Amity closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath.

“Fine. But...” She lowered her voice. “I think that spell took a lot more out of me than it should have.”

Amity hadn’t realized it until now, but she was feeling kind of dizzy and a little bit sick, in a way she hadn’t since she’d been a little kid trying to cast spells way beyond her abilities.

She hadn’t thought about what being away from the Boiling Isles would mean for her ability to use magic—Luz’s seemed to work just fine, after all—but this had Amity shaken.

Still, she forced herself to keep her composure like she’d been taught to do since she was five, stowing away the worries for later. The middle of a school hallway in a world that didn’t know magic existed was hardly the right place to freak out about this.

“We have to get to class now, anyway. You can sit down there, and by the time we have to get back up you’ll hopefully feel a bit better.”

Luz kept supporting her all the way to class, which _maybe_ wouldn’t have been necessary, but Amity wasn’t complaining.

Thankfully, Amity really did feel a bit better after sitting down.

Luz pulled a juice box from her backpack and handed it to her friend, who downed it gratefully.

Amity’s head cleared a bit after that, and she tried not to think too hard about how drained she felt after such a small spell.

Class itself was... kind of a disaster, too.

Amity was so used to always being top of her class, always prepared for any question that might be asked, her hand raised more often than not. She worked herself to complete exhaustion back home, but that hard work paid off—occasional approving nods from her parents for another exam with a perfect score, her ‘top student’ badge that she’d long since recovered after the Willow incident a couple months ago, the praise she got from her teachers... Those made Amity feel confident and good about herself.

Without that... without that and without the powerful magical abilities she’d trained so hard to achieve... who even _was_ she anymore?

She tried listening to the teacher, tried skimming through the texts of the history book... but they made no sense to her. 

Amity never struggled with her classes in the Boiling Isles—not like this, anyway. She couldn’t remember ever feeling this lost in school before, and it felt so awful she wanted to cry.

For the first time in her life, Amity spent a class hoping the teacher _wouldn't_ call on her.

The first period ended, and despite Luz warning Amity that their school didn’t have a screaming bell the day before, Amity didn’t realize that class was actually over until half their classmates had already left the room.

“You coming?”

Amity quickly threw her stuff into her bag, really embarrassed about not realizing what was going on earlier.

“On it!”

Luz gently put a hand on her friend’s shoulder and gave her a worried look.

“Everything okay? You don’t look very good.”

“It’s nothing.” Amity bit her lip. “I’m just... worried about the thing from earlier. There’s no way that won’t have some kind of repercussions.”

It wasn’t even the thought of telling Luz how lost she felt that scared her. This was _Luz,_ after all, and Amity knew her crush would never have thought less of her for something like that—especially since Luz knew firsthand how difficult getting used to a new environment and classes she’d never taken could be. 

No, what actually scared Amity was the thought of admitting to herself out loud that she _wasn’t good enough._

The day hardly improved from there. Math was slightly less confusing than History, since the Boiling Isles did have an equivalent to that, but it was still a lot more complex than anything Amity had ever learned. By the thirty-minute mark she was just about ready to smash her head into the nearest desk.  
To her _great joy,_ Math turned out to be a double period. 

Thankfully, they had English after that—something Amity actually enjoyed because she _understood_ what the teacher was talking about. She even shyly raised her hand three times and actually got to give an answer that the teacher confirmed to be correct, which made her feel a little better.

...until Ms. Wilson asked to speak to her after class and her heart dropped into her gut.

_‘Great. The one class that doesn’t turn my brain to complete mush and the teacher already hates me.’_

It seemed the day had finally taken mercy on Amity, though—Ms. Wilson wasn’t upset with her at all.

“I know you missed the first couple days of school, I just wanted to say there's no pressure to make your work up right away. I'll accept the assignments at any point this week,” Ms. Wilson explained kindly before dismissing her with a friendly smile. 

Amity allowed herself a sigh of relief over not getting in trouble in the first class she’d actually liked, then it was back to the confusing stuff.  
Physics—which, by the end of that lesson, Amity was convinced was just a fancy human realm word for _‘even more confusing Math’_ —and Chemistry were both utter mysteries to her, and everything slowly started blending together in her head to make the whole mess complete.

Amity’s _wonderful_ day culminated in the school secretary walking into their last class before lunch break to proclaim to all of their classmates that they were in trouble.

“Amity Blight, Luz Noceda, please report to the principal’s office immediately.”

As Luz and her exchanged nervous glances and packed up their bags, Amity noticed there was another empty seat in the classroom—the one where Ben had been sitting.

A few minutes later, the two girls were sitting in the room right outside the principal’s office to wait. Ben apparently already inside, taking his time to tell the principal whatever sob story he’d come up with to land the girls in trouble. 

The only good thing about that was that they didn’t have to face him for now. Amity wasn’t sure she’d have the restraint to let him off easily a second time.

Meanwhile, Luz had been informed that her mom had been called in for another chat with principal Hal—not even a week after school started no less, Luz knew her mom wouldn’t be thrilled about that. 

Camila would be there soon, and they weren’t supposed to go in until she was.

Both girls were extremely nervous. 

Amity was tense, fingers clenched around the arms of her chair as she faced the floor.

The thought of getting in trouble made her feel sick to her stomach.

Luz was fidgeting in her seat. This could only end in two ways—Luz and Amity getting in trouble for something Ben did… or a conversation with her mom that Luz had been avoiding for years.  
She forced that particular thought to the back of her mind, her hand finding Amity’s on the arm rest.

“Mom’s not gonna be thrilled... but she’s not gonna rip our heads off, okay?”

Amity took a deep breath, slightly embarrassed that Luz had realized how nervous she was. Was she getting worse at concealing her feelings? Had she never been as good at it as she thought? 

...was Luz just getting _that_ good at reading her?

That last thought was kind of sweet, so that was the explanation Amity stuck with. 

With Luz’s hand in hers, the green-haired witch felt her nervousness subside a little.

“You know, I’ve known you for less than four months and this is already the second principal I get in trouble with,” Amity stated, elbowing Luz with a conspiratorial grin. “You’re going to turn me into a troublemaker yet.”

Amity didn’t regret what she’d done—okay, maybe she regretted _how_ she’d done it, at least a little, because Luz was probably right about that being too risky—but she was still incredibly nervous about getting called into the principal’s office because of it.

This was _not_ the kind of impression Amity had wanted to make on her first day of school.

And she had no clue how Camila would react... who had given nothing short of the world to Amity, had never been anything but kind to her, and for whom the girl had caused nothing but trouble since she’d gotten here. 

She hated the thought of disappointing Camila—and for maybe the first time in her life, that fear had nothing to do with Amity being afraid of the punishment.

“Well, at least no one almost got dissected this time,” Luz said with a snort, causing Amity to break into laughter as well.

And because timing had never been on Luz’s side for as long as she could remember, of course _that_ was when her mother walked in.

“...what was that about someone getting dissected?”

Luz yelped, then plastered on the broadest, least convincing innocent grin Amity had ever seen.

“Hi mom!”

  
  


Willow had been standing outside the school for a bit now. 

She casually checked her watch again. 

When she looked up, Boscha was standing next to her.

“You waiting for someone?”

Willow barely managed to keep herself from flinching violently, startled as she was by the other girl appearing out of nowhere.

She made a mental note to add _‘no sneaking up on me’_ to the agreement when the other girls were around to hear it, then turned to face Boscha and crossed her arms.

“Gus.” He should have been here by now, but his class could have let out a bit late for any number of reasons, so she wasn’t particularly worried. It was just unfortunate that him being late had led to a solo-encounter with Boscha. “Not like that’s any of _your_ business.”

“Well, since he’s not here yet...” Willow _really_ didn’t like the way the other girl was smirking at her. “Can I talk to you for a sec? Just wanted to make some things clear from the very beginning.” 

Boscha stared her down, but once again, Willow fought down her fear and firmly stood her ground.

She was contemplating just flat out telling the other girl _‘no’..._ but she decided on the slightly pettier option.

“Oh?” Willow raised an eyebrow and smiled at Boscha innocently. “What is it that you have to tell me? Surely you don’t want to break our agreement barely a day in? Because cornering me like that _does_ kind of put you on thin ice.”

“The schoolyard is a public place. Lots of people around. That hardly counts as ‘cornering,’ I’m not breaking anything,” Boscha grumbled, “I just wanted to give you a piece of advice before you get your hopes up. If you think this is going to change anything between us in the long run, you’ll be sorely disappointed, H- Willow,” Boscha quickly corrected herself before the cruel insult she’d used for years slipped out. As much as this arrangement annoyed her, she would have to make do with it for the time being. Still, it was important to draw certain lines before Willow got any ideas. “After the cast comes off, you’ll leave the team again, and that’s it. This is a necessary evil, no more, no less. We’re _not_ going to be friends.”

Willow was filled with the absurd urge to laugh, completely baffled over what she’d just heard. She was no stranger to Boscha’s ridiculous sense of self-importance, but this had to be a new record for her. 

How unbelievably conceited could _one person_ be?

“You really don’t get it, do you?”

Willow hesitated for a moment. Was she really willing to do this and live with whatever consequences it led to?

“Well, what don’t I get? Why don’t you _enlighten me?”_

Willow clenched her fists at Boscha’s mocking tone and her smug grin. The decision practically made itself.

“You think of yourself as this... this untouchable being that’s so much better than everyone, and everyone else is supposed to worship the ground that you walk on. And why? Because your parents are rich? Because you’re good at sports?” She stared Boscha directly in the eyes as she continued. “Well, newsflash, Boscha: you’re not better than anyone. You’re a lot worse than most of us, in fact. You never consider how you make anyone else feel with the way you behave. You’re a terrible person! You’re always mean to everyone! You’ve been picking on me for years! _**Why the heck would I want to be friends with you?!”** _She couldn’t imagine a reason why _anyone_ would want that. The thought of trailing around behind Boscha, laughing on command to boost the bully’s ego, was enough to make Willow sick. “That you think of that as some covetable achievement for someone you’ve been bullying for years really says a lot about how self-absorbed you are.” She crossed her arms, shook her head, and then looked straight at Boscha once more for the last thing she had to say. “I do hope your arm gets better soon, though, because once it does, I can go back to seeing you as little as possible!” Willow gave her former bully a bright, bold smile as she turned on her heel. “Have a nice afternoon, Boscha! See you tomorrow!”

And just like that, she walked off, leaving behind a very baffled Boscha who was too dazed to even manage a snarky comment in return.

Willow felt like she was walking on air. This was quite possibly the most amazing feeling in the entire world.

Gus appeared next to Willow a moment later, a worried expression on his face.

He hadn’t seen much, but Boscha talking to Willow alone simply _couldn’t_ be a good thing.

“Are you okay? I’m sorry for being so late! Someone messed up a spell in Illusions and we had to stay longer until everybody looked like themselves again. If I’d gotten here earlier-”

“I’m fine, don’t worry,” Willow stopped him with a wave of her hand. _“Holy shit, I just did that,”_ she whispered, a little in disbelief about how brave she’d just been, but also so, so incredibly proud of herself.

Gus looked visibly relieved when he saw the huge smile on her face.

“What happened?”

Willow felt the most confident she had in months as she gave a quick summary of the encounter to Gus on their way to the Owl House, and was maybe a bit too satisfied remembering how the other girl had gaped at her.

 _‘Sorry, Boscha. I’m done being scared of you, and there’s_ **_nothing_ ** _you can do about it.’_

Maybe the next couple of weeks wouldn’t be so bad, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> As always, thank you for reading, I really hope you enjoyed this!  
> Comments are extremely appreciated, I love hearing your thoughts :D  
> Massive thank you to everyone who left feedback on the last chapter (and also just the story in general)! Your comments keep me motivated and never fail to make me smile, I’ve read most of them several times and just want to thank you all again for being the most incredible, kind community I could ask for.  
> You guys are seriously awesome and I could not be more grateful.  
> Thanks for:  
> -4k+ kudos? Somehow? This is insane I love you all so much 🥺  
> -More than 600 bookmarks!  
> -More than 1k subscriptions 😭  
> -Over 80k hits!  
> -A hell ton of comments that are by far more than I’ve gotten ON ALL OF MY OTHER FICS COMBINED!  
> Just... thank you. When I started this fic I was hoping to get about ten loyal readers. I never expected to build such a massive community.  
> This is by far the coolest thing that’s ever happened to me.  
> Just... thank you.


	11. Rift

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So... where to start with this chapter?  
> I’ll admit this is probably one of the most difficult chapters I’ve ever written because hitting the right tone here is extremely important, and despite everything, I’m still worried out of my mind I might have not done it right.  
> There is few owl house stories that include Camila, and even fewer that have the possibility to deal with her as a character as in-depth as this one does.  
> I hope that by now, you’ve realized most of the characters I write are flawed in some way—one may be thoughtless or in constant denial, or carry an unhealthy amount of perfectionism, the desire to preserve a certain image of themself at all costs, or the inability to open up to others. And because of these behaviors, they end up hurting not only themself but often also each other.  
> That however doesn’t mean these characters are inherently bad people, or lost causes. It means they’re flawed, which is an incredibly normal, human thing to be. It means they have growing to do and toxic behaviors to unlearn, just like most of us.  
> Camila is no exception here. She is a good, but also deeply flawed person, just like everyone else.  
> Camila worries a lot about Luz. She tries her best to be a good mother, and only wants what’s best for her daughter... but what you think is best for someone and what is actually best for them can be (and often are) two very different things.  
> Luz’s relationship with her mother suffers from a lack of open communication and mutual understanding. That doesn’t mean that either of them is a terrible person, or that they don’t love each other dearly. But it does mean that their relationship is one that they have to work on.  
> This quote sums it up wonderfully:
> 
> “Sometimes a person can care about you more than anything in the world, and still not see you. It hurts, and you wonder if you could have done something different, should have been someone different, but… it doesn’t mean she doesn’t love you. It doesn’t mean she won’t ever understand you, and it doesn’t mean you should change yourself. Not for your mom, not for me, not for anyone.”  
> ~Eda Clawthorne, [ Make my heart your home (thanks mom, you’re the best) by tiredandjaded](https://archiveofourown.org/works/26285455/chapters/63992743)
> 
> I just felt like that’s a thing I should probably say before going into this chapter, I think you’ll see why.
> 
> Happy Holidays everyone!  
> This chapter is very sad and also very long (slightly shorter than the last one, but not by much), so if you don’t have much time or don’t want to cry right now, you might want to come back later!
> 
> Now, without further ado, the deep dive into Luz's relationship with her mom that I’ve very heavily hinted I wanted to do for a while now.

When Camila's all-too-short break had been interrupted by the cheerful trill of her phone's ringtone, she had tried not to assume the worst. Really, she had. 

Unfortunately, pulling her phone out of her pocket revealed a familiar phone number: the Administration Office of Luz’s school.

_‘Oh, mija... the third day?’_

The same rote explanation had been given to the on-duty practitioner, who signed her out with a tired smile and a "good luck," and Camila had set out for her first principal's office visit of the school year.

Camila just hoped that whatever trouble Luz had gotten into, she hadn't dragged Amity into it as well. With how vocal Luz had been about Amity worrying about school, that was the last thing she needed on top of everything else.

Camila really wanted to believe that wasn’t the case—Luz obviously cared a lot about Amity’s feelings, she wouldn’t have done something like that to her on purpose... but it also wasn’t a secret that Luz tended to be impulsive and probably hadn’t thought too much about whatever had happened this time beforehand.

Camila schooled her features into a neutral expression as she pushed open the double doors to the school's entrance. She knew the way to the principal's office by heart at this point, a fact that brought her little comfort.

As she approached the door, a plaque proclaiming it to be 'Administration,' Camila prepared herself for what she would find. A reticent Luz, no doubt, gaze cast down at the ground, awaiting her punishment. Hopefully none of her classmates had been involved; Camila didn’t know if she could handle another parental apology tour—that had been a mortifying consequence of Luz's theater audition.

Honestly, if there were at least no live animals involved, Camila would consider that a partial victory. 

Of all the things she had expected to see upon walking in, her daughter and her friend smiling and talking about a _dissection_ of all things had not been on the list.

Camila crossed her arms and eyed Luz and Amity, more concerned than upset.

“So? Who almost got dissected?”

Luz made a dismissive gesture with her hand and faked the laugh that went along with it so poorly that it came out more nervous than amused.

“Well, I mean...”

Camila raised an eyebrow.

“Nobody, obviously!” Amity jumped in helpfully, slipping on the calm and collected mask she’d worn so frequently prior to meeting Luz, despite being a bundle of nerves in reality. “There’s just this fantasy romance story we read together during camp... really silly, but pretty cute stuff. That was one of the first things we bonded over, actually. We still like to joke about it occasionally.” Amity nearly dropped her facade when she realized she had unthinkingly used the words ‘romance’ and ‘cute’ to describe her first meeting with Luz. While she was sitting next to her and talking to Camila. In front of the principal’s office. Where they were about to get in trouble. _‘Oh yeah, perfect time and place to confess, Amity! In fact, why don’t you just tell her that you have Amity Noceda scribbled all over your diary while you’re at it?’_

Amity quietly prayed to the Titan that Luz hadn’t noticed and did her best to keep her cool externally.

Camila eyed the two girls skeptically for another moment, somewhat amused by her daughter’s blushing—she had a feeling there _might_ be a bit more to that story than Amity let on—but only shrugged.

It seemed a bit morbid of a joke for a book to make, but it fit the picture of the few things Camila knew about the stories Luz liked—nothing _too_ dark, but the inspiration for some of those stunts had to have come from _somewhere._

“Okay.” She sighed. Cute story or not, this wasn’t really the time to be joking around. “Now, will the two of you please tell me what happened?” Luz and Amity looked at each other nervously, then eyed the floor, neither of them really knowing what to say. Camila’s concern only grew. “Mija, please just tell me you didn’t bring snakes to school again...”

Amity raised an eyebrow.

“Snakes?” 

Luz shrugged, turning to Amity to avoid having to face her mom for a moment. Ever since she’d brought Amity home, Luz had a feeling that her mom was... proud of how she’d stepped up to take care of her friend. Of course that couldn’t have lasted— it hadn’t even been a week since Luz had gotten back from the Boiling Isles, and here she was, disappointing her mother once again.

“I was very dedicated to that Azura book report,” Luz explained, and somehow, Amity looked at her like she was the most precious being in the universe for that. Luz wasn’t sure how she’d managed to spend so much time with Amity over the summer and _not_ imagined kissing her every single second they were together. Then Luz remembered her mom was present, coughed awkwardly and turned to face her, waving her hands defensively. “No snakes this time, mom, I swear!”

“It was my fault, Ms. Noceda...” Amity piped up nervously. “I-”

She paused, as if she was unsure what to apologize for.

Camila shook her head. It was sweet that Amity was trying to cover up for Luz, but... Camila really would have preferred to go into the principal’s office knowing what exactly she had to apologize for this time.

She wasn’t given the chance to ask again, though, since before she could dig deeper, the school secretary Camila had spoken to earlier called for a “Miss Blight” and “Miss Noceda.” As the three of them walked past, the secretary shot a disapproving glance at, to Camila’s surprise, _Amity._

_What in the world had happened?_

As they approached the door, it opened and a black haired boy that Camila immediately recognized as Ben Mitchell—son of Liana Mitchell, a personal friend of Camila’s and the city’s current mayor—walked out. 

Camila’s breath hitched.

Liana was nothing if not a kind woman, but the thought of having to apologize to her again so soon after the last incident...

Then, so quick that Camila could have missed it if she'd blinked, the boy shot a nasty smirk at her daughter as he walked past. Luz flinched, and Amity reached for her hand, giving it a squeeze before glaring daggers at Ben, whose look of satisfaction crumbled into nervousness as he suddenly increased his pace, almost running out of the waiting room.

Camila blinked, a bit taken aback. That didn't seem like something the kind young man Liana had described over their tea dates would do, but even more disturbing was Luz’s reaction.

As they walked into the principal’s office, the tension in her daughter’s body barely eased, her hand in Amity’s shaking a little, and Camila couldn’t shake the feeling that something was really, _really_ wrong.

After greeting all of them, the principal urged them to sit down, and so they did, Luz taking the chair between Amity and her mom.

Amity squirmed uncomfortably in her seat as the principal eyed her and Luz strictly.

“Do you know why you’re here?” Hal asked calmly, with the ‘disappointed teacher’ voice Luz knew so well.

She gulped and shook her head. For once, she really had no idea what she was in trouble for... but from the dark look on the principal’s face, she feared whatever Ben had made up was _really_ bad.

Hal gave her a disapproving look, then turned to face Amity instead.

“In that case... Amity Blight, is there anything you would like to share with us?”

Amity said nothing, her heart racing as she eyed the floor.

She _hated_ getting in trouble, and not even knowing what she was being accused of made her even more anxious.

“Would you please just cut to the chase?” Camila asked. The bad feeling in her stomach only grew at their expressions. “What did they do?”

“We didn’t do anything!” Luz protested, but was promptly silenced by another strict glare from the principal.

“I understand your desire to protect your friend, but you need to remember how serious this situation is, Miss Noceda. Miss Blight hurt another student.”

The room went silent.

“...Amity _what?”_

Camila looked past her daughter at Amity, who was frozen in place and looked terrified out of her mind. 

It didn’t look like the reaction of someone caught in the act—one that Camila was fairly familiar with, both from her experience as a parent, and from patients at the hospital who were surprised doctors figured out they hadn’t been following medical advice accordingly—but rather one of someone who’d been struck out of the blue.

Over the past few days, what Camila had observed of Amity’s behavior and reactions to certain things painted a disturbing picture.

She had a sinking feeling this would be another such case.

“Mr. Mitchell came here with a witness earlier,” the principal explained. “He was extremely shaken up, and reported that during a meeting before class, Miss Blight suddenly started a verbal fight unprovoked and then hit him several times. He pleaded for her to be expelled since her presence makes him feel unsafe.”

_“What?!”_

Luz couldn’t believe what she was hearing.

Next to her, Amity shrunk in her chair.

“Since this is Miss Blight’s first day of school and I’m not beyond giving second chances, I decided against it... but she will be suspended from classes until the end of next week. She is to reflect on her behavior in the meantime, and will be kept a close eye on once she returns to school, to ensure Mr. Mitchell doesn’t feel unsafe in her presence. Should she in any way show violent behavior towards him or any of her other classmates again, the consequences will have to be more drastic.”

Luz jumped out of her chair.

“Amity didn’t do anything like that! You can’t just- you can’t just suspend her based on stuff Ben made up!” But even as she spoke, Luz knew it was pointless. He could do whatever he wanted, from whatever story Ben had cooked up, because Ben was _trustworthy_ and Luz wasn’t. Hadn’t that been how it always worked? Why should it have been different this time? _‘I’m so sorry for getting you into this mess, Amity.’_

“Cariño, please sit back down, will you? Yelling at each other will get us nowhere.” Camila crossed her arms and looked at the principal. Amity had never shown any inclination towards violence, and Camila had a hard time believing that the girl that had been too shy and lost in thought to even speak to her a couple of days ago would go around school picking fights for no reason. This was moving way too quickly for her taste, especially for a punishment that harsh. “These are some pretty severe allegations, principal Hal. Do you have any proof to support them?”

“Like I said, Mr. Mitchell brought a witness, and neither of them gave me any reason to doubt them.” He nodded at Amity. “Miss Blight has been noticeably quiet so far. I’d say we hear what she has to say for herself.”

Luz had been so caught up in her anger that she hadn’t even noticed it, but... the principal was right. Amity had been dead quiet ever since they’d entered the room. That she hadn’t said anything to defend herself wasn’t just odd, it was worrying.

Luz turned around to check on her and gulped. Amity was white as a sheet, staring at a point on the wall behind Hal, her hands in a tense grip around the arms of her chair.

“Amity?” Luz gently placed a hand on her friend’s shoulder, but it prompted no reaction. “What’s wrong?”

Even at the sound of Luz’s kind, worried voice, Amity couldn’t bring herself to let go of the _stupid_ chair, or even say a word. 

She was terrified, because no matter how unjust it was, Amity knew how this went.

Here, she wasn’t the top student with influential parents, who teachers either trusted or feared.

In the Human Realm, she was just... the new nobody. 

Principal Hal had no reason to believe her over Ben.

The thought of accepting the punishment terrified her for multiple reasons. That she had barely even been to school for a day before getting suspended was shameful and unworthy of a Blight, and Camila would surely be incredibly disappointed in her. 

Somehow worse was the fact that not going to school would mean leaving Luz to face Ben alone again, a thought that made Amity feel sick to the stomach.

But despite how unfair this was and how much she wanted to explain what had actually happened, the thought of talking back to the principal made her feel so ill she couldn’t bring herself to say a single word.

 _‘Bear it with a smile, child. Look on the bright side: at least you get to learn something from your actions,’_ the all-too-familiar voice in her head whispered.

“It looks to me as if the young lady is aware and ashamed of her wrongdoings,” Hal concluded. “That is all the proof I need on top of the witness report. It’s noble of you to try and defend your friend, Miss Noceda, but Miss Blight seems to agree with the extent of the punishment.”

Luz gently stroked Amity’s hand and glared back at the principal. It didn’t take a genius to figure out something was incredibly wrong, and that something was _definitely not_ Amity agreeing she deserved a punishment for something that hadn’t actually happened.

“Amity didn’t even do anything! She just- Amity just-” Luz’s voice caught in her throat, and she hesitated. She glanced over at her mom, her hands shaking, her heart racing, but as much as she didn’t want to say it out loud, she couldn’t let her friend take the fall for something she hadn’t done. _‘I won’t let you get punished for protecting me. I’ll be your fearless champion again... even if it means this time I’ll actually have to face what I’m most afraid of.’_ She lowered her head as she forced the words out, softly whispering “all she did was defend me,” and braced herself for whatever would follow.

Camila’s stomach turned to knots.

“Defend you?”

“Not- not physically or anything!” Luz clarified quickly, her voice shaking almost as much as her hands were. She didn’t want her mom to know about this... but there was no way out of this situation without talking about the bullying. “Ben was...” One last pause, one chance to back out. Luz forced herself to continue. “Ben was picking on me. All Amity did was talk back to him to get him to stop.”

Camila instinctively reached for her daughter’s shaking hand. It felt incredibly small in hers.

“It’s admirable how much you care about your friend, Miss Noceda. And I guess that you’re used to living in a fantasy world isn’t new. But making up stories to cover up an act of violence is taking it too far.”

Luz shrunk in her seat. She felt downright sick.

 **“Hold up.”** Camila raised the hand that wasn’t holding Luz’s and glared at the principal. _That_ was taking it too far. “Now you’re accusing Luz of lying? Tell me again why exactly you consider that boy and his friend so much more credible than my daughter and Amity? There’s a chance that either side could be in the wrong here, but you haven’t even stopped to consider that, have you? I mean, the so-called ‘evidence’ isn’t exactly overwhelming.” The longer she talked, the angrier she got. While she understood that the principal didn’t exactly have a high opinion of her daughter after the previous incidents, Camila would not just sit by and have someone call her daughter a liar. What Luz had just admitted had clearly taken a lot out of her, there was no way that was an act.. Camila swore to herself that she would comfort her daughter and have a talk about that as soon as they got home. “But you’re just taking everything Ben said as the truth without stopping to question it. Why is that? It certainly couldn't be that this boy's parents donate generous sums of money to the school annually, right? Because that would be deeply unprofessional.”

The principal shook his head.

“Camila, as much as I understand your desire to believe her, we both know your daughter doesn’t exactly have the best track record.”

The completely uncalled-for familiarity made Camila even angrier.

“You’re right. _Luz_ doesn’t. Which has absolutely nothing to do with Amity.” Camila clenched her fist. She’d _had it_ with these baseless accusations. “And even if we pretend that is a valid argument for a second, _which it isn’t,_ nowhere in my daughter’s ‘bad track record’ does it say anything about violence! Yes, she’s creative, but that doesn’t mean everything she says is made up!” This was ridiculous. “Oh, and by the way, I don’t recall giving you permission to call me by my first name.”

Principal Hal blinked, clearly taken aback. For a moment, Camila feared he might double down on his verdict, but he only slumped his shoulders and sighed.

“You’re right, Mrs. Noceda. I allowed myself to be biased—Mr. Mitchell has never given me any reason to doubt him, while the number of incidents your daughter was involved in...” He trailed off. “Nonetheless, I should have treated this situation as a separate incident from the very beginning. That I didn’t was indeed unprofessional and unfair. My apologies.”

Camila shook her head.

“Apologies, as appreciated as they are, won’t fix this situation. You haven’t even considered their side of the story so far. Will you at least allow them to speak before you decide how to handle the incident?” He nodded. Camila turned to the girls, her eyes filled with worry. “Will you two please tell us what happened?”

Amity finally lifted her head. 

She looked over at Luz, and her heart broke at how devastated her friend was. Amity knew what someone withdrawing into themselves looked like; she had a feeling Luz wouldn’t be able to say any more about what had happened with Ben..

But _someone_ had to, or Ben would just keep pulling stunts like this and keep getting away with it until he got both of them expelled. Amity refused to let that happen.

If it had just been for herself, she might have bitten her lip and accepted her punishment as she had been taught to. But since it wasn’t just for herself—since the most important thing in the universe was at stake—she didn’t.

Amity would _never_ let anyone take Luz’s smile away... even if protecting it meant crossing a line she never had before.

“Ben didn’t just pick on her,” Amity whispered, fists clenched at her side. She felt less ill about speaking now that she had Camila’s permission to. “He pushed her into the locker, and then pretended it was her fault and made her apologize for it. Everyone was laughing, and I... well, I snapped. I couldn’t just watch it happen. I had to do something.” She looked up at Camila with the eyes of a scared child, desperately hoping against all odds that this adult that barely even knew her and had no reason to trust her would believe her. “I was harsh, but all I did was tell him off, hoping he’d leave Luz alone in the future if I did. But I didn’t hit him, I swear.”

“He pushed you into a locker?” Camila’s voice shook.

Luz nodded without looking up from the floor.

“I...” Amity hesitated for a moment. She knew what she was about to say was overstepping boundaries. These were things that Luz wasn’t ready to talk to her mom about, and it was possible that she’d get angry at her or be hurt if Amity told Camila... but who knew how long this had been going on without her telling anyone? Keeping it all to herself, trying and failing to just _bear_ _it,_ clearly hadn’t worked. Not telling Camila about this would probably cause more harm in the long run... so Amity continued, even at the risk of hurting the trust Luz put in her. She’d rather have Luz mad at her than allow for this to continue. “I don’t think this was an isolated incident, either. The way she immediately tensed up and tried to hide when she saw him... I think he’s been treating her this way for a while.”

Luz couldn’t breathe. 

It wasn’t like she hadn’t known this was coming—deep down, she’d always known she couldn’t dodge this conversation with her mom forever, no matter how much she wanted to. As soon as they’d been called into the principal’s office earlier, she’d known her luck had run out. 

Somehow, knowing that didn’t make having it out in the open any less terrifying. She knew what questions her mom would ask, and what else it would lead to, and hell, _this was going to hurt so much._

“Mija, how long has this been happening?”

Luz was shaking. 

There was so much concern in her mother’s voice that it almost killed her.

When she finally found the strength to look up at her mom, her eyes were filled with tears.

The words were like stones stuck in her throat, and it took ages and a lot of sobs for her to finally get them out.

“T-third grade...”

Camila gasped.

“Third- Luz!” Luz cast her gaze downwards again. Her fingers clenched around the hem of her shirt. She couldn’t even look at her mom right now. Her mother gently put her arms around her, soothingly drawing circles on Luz’s back to comfort her. Luz melted into the hug, burying her head in her mom’s chest when all she really wanted right now was to disappear. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

There it was. That terrifying five word question Luz had so desperately wanted to avoid. It wasn’t accusatory, her mom didn’t sound mad... she was devastated, and that was even worse.

“I-” Luz couldn’t answer. Not here. _Not at all, but especially not here._ “Can we... can we please just go home?”

Amity stared at Luz in horror.

Despite all common sense, right now, she sincerely wished she _had_ actually hit Ben.

_‘She seemed so confident when she was standing up to Boscha, I didn’t think...’_

Luz looked so broken now. So small.

“Of course, cariño. We’ll go home.” Camila gave her daughter a kiss on the forehead before turning back to the principal. Whatever he had been about to say immediately died in his throat at her furious glare. Camila was done with this conversation. All she wanted now was to get out of here and talk to her daughter. “Ben’s mother is a close personal friend of mine that I hold in very high regard. What Luz is saying doesn’t fit the image of what Liana described her son to be, but I also know Luz wouldn’t lie about something like that. I don’t care how believable you think his story is. The fact is that you’re biased here, choosing to believe some of your students over others, when in reality, it’s my daughter’s words against Ben’s, and you don’t have any real proof for or against either side. That’s some impressively shaky evidence for a punishment this severe that could have long-lasting consequences for a student. I'm frankly appalled that you would consider taking an action that could affect Amity's academic future merely on the word of another student. If you try to go through with this, I'm going to fight you on it every step of the way. Amity does not deserve to be treated like a criminal by a so-called professional, on her first day at the school no less! For all your bragging about giving second chances, you barely even gave Amity a first one.”

  
She stared him straight in the eye as she drove her point home.

“Let me make something very, _very_ clear, principal Hal. If you think there is anything you can say to get me to turn on my charge or my crying daughter, you _are sorely mistaken._ And speaking of my daughter: how can this be the first you’ve heard about the bullying situation? Did none of the teachers pick up on it, or did they also not see a reason to doubt Mr. Mitchell? I would have thought an institution like this one would pay at least a little more attention to their students well-being.”

That did it. Principal Hal caved completely.

“You’re right, Mrs. Noceda. We were not aware of the nature of Mr. Mitchell’s interactions with your daughter, and… well, that’s no excuse. I will inform his teachers to keep a closer eye on him; bullying is something we take very seriously here. You have my sincerest apologies that this has gone unaddressed for so long.”

For a man that was almost a full head taller than her, he seemed incredibly small right now.

Camila crossed her arms.

“I’m not the one you owe an apology to. And I don’t care much for apologies if you’re not going to follow through and do better. Prove me you will and you will be forgiven, apology or not.”

He lowered his head.

“...understood.”

Camila managed a small smile.

“Good. I trust you won’t be suspending Amity anymore?”

He shook his head.

“Of course not. However, I think it would be prudent for both Miss Blight and Miss Noceda to take the rest of the day off, given the circumstances. They will be marked as present, of course, and be able to make up anything they miss.”

Camila sighed, suddenly exhausted now that her anger had run its course. 

“Fine. But if I hear about another incident with my daughter…” 

“I’ll do everything in my power to ensure it doesn’t come to that.”

Camila felt completely numb as they walked out of school. She was still trying to wrap her head around everything that had just happened and everything she’d just learned.

As soon as they’d left the principal’s office, following Amity saying “I understand if you’re mad at me right now” and Luz reassuring her that she _wasn’t,_ Luz had latched onto Amity again.

Amity had wrapped an arm around Luz’s back, and Luz’s left hand was resting on where Amity’s left hand clung to her side, and they walked like that all the way back to the car.

Luz’s step was missing its usual excited bounce, and while Camila was glad Luz had Amity to hold onto, she couldn’t help but feel like her daughter was avoiding her right now—after years of avoiding to tell her about the bullying, Luz didn’t seem ready to face her mom now that she knew.

Camila felt sick just thinking about it. How could she have missed this? How long had they been this out of touch?

_Why hadn’t Luz told her?_

As much as she wanted—needed—to know the answer, she was also incredibly scared of it.

She must’ve done something incredibly wrong for a very long time if her daughter hadn’t been willing to talk to her about how much she was struggling.

The more Camila thought about the conversation with the principal, the more she began to see her own mistakes, too—because he hadn’t been the only one that had jumped to conclusions. 

Despite claiming she had tried not to assume the worst, when the school secretary had told Camila there had been an incident that required her presence, she had immediately assumed Luz was the cause of it—despite her proving she’d grown a lot more responsible over the summer in the last few days.

_‘I even thought Amity was covering up for her at first when she said it wasn’t Luz’s fault... what kind of mother assumes the worst from her child like that? When did I become so biased against my own daughter?’_

And despite the fact that how Hal had stated Luz was living in a fantasy world had gotten Camila’s blood boiling... hadn’t she said something similar to her daughter before? Even if she hadn’t meant it that way, what if it had sounded like that to Luz? 

_‘What if she didn’t tell me because she thought I wouldn’t believe her?’_

She needed to get home. She needed to talk to Luz and get to the bottom of this, and then find a way to fix it. 

_‘If you even still can,’_ a voice whispered at the back of her mind.

She forced herself to shut it down. She couldn’t allow herself to think like that right now.

She _would_ fix this and be a better mom for Luz.

No matter what it took.

Not a single word was spoken on the ride back to Magnolia Drive.

Luz spent it with her head buried in Amity’s shoulder, hoping against all odds that the car would never stop and she could just remain like this forever, taking in the smell of her own peach shampoo that somehow smelled a thousand times better on Amity... and not having to face the difficult conversation that she knew was waiting for her at home.

But all too soon, the car rolled to a halt. Luz didn’t look up, but the jingle of keys, followed by the clunk of the car door shutting told her that her mother had left.

Luz lingered on the backseat a little longer, hoping to put off the dreaded conversation even just a minute more. Amity remained at her side, squeezing her arm gently.

“Take your time, okay?”

But for all Amity’s comforting words, they couldn’t stay in there forever. 

Luz shuffled her feet the whole way to the front door, but there was only so long she could postpone the inevitable.

“I’ll... I’ll give you guys some space,” Amity mumbled when they stepped into the living room, giving Luz’s shoulder one more comforting squeeze before heading up the stairs.

It was Luz and Camila that needed to talk, and Amity knew she had no business being in the middle of that.

Luz wanted to run after her friend, but she pulled herself together instead. 

She forced herself to slowly sit down on the couch and waited for her mother to join her.

For a while, both of them just sat there, neither saying a word. Luz was sniffling, trying her hardest not to cry again. The pit in her stomach felt enormous, the weight of the secret she’d been keeping for the past six years no less sickening now that it was out in the open.

She didn’t want her mom to know about this. She didn’t want to have this conversation with her, because she knew it would have to be honest, and painful, and she felt sick just thinking about that.

Of course, deep down, Luz knew that wouldn’t have solved anything, but right now, all she wanted was to run away from this conversation.

She would have preferred to be pretty much anywhere else but on this stupid yellow couch.

...or maybe not just anywhere. Maybe she knew exactly that what she wanted most right now was to be back at the Owl House, for Eda to ruffle her hair and give her a hug while still pretending she didn’t know what a hug was, and maybe that knowledge made Luz feel a thousand times worse because _she wasn’t supposed to be feeling that, especially not right now._

Luz loved her mom. She loved her mom _so much._

_‘What is wrong with me?’_

Camila had spent the entire drive home thinking about what to say to her daughter, and yet, when it came down to it, she had no idea where to even begin.

There were a million questions in her mind that all longed for answers, and none of them really seemed like the right place to start.

“Did... did he ever hurt you?” Camila started hesitantly.

It was a terrible question to ask, and one she deeply feared the answer to, but she had to know.

She needed to know how far this had gone without her daughter talking to her.

...how much she’d failed as a parent for not picking up on the clues sooner.

Luz didn’t reply, but the fact that she couldn’t meet her mother’s eyes was answer enough.

Camila wasn’t sure her heart could shatter any further than it had right now.

_‘God, I’m a terrible mother.’_

“It isn’t just Ben,” Luz whispered after a while. “Nobody at school likes me. They all think I’m some kind of freak. And maybe that’s partially because I’m me, but... it’s also because Ben’s funny, and everyone loves him, and he doesn’t like me. I- I don’t even know what I did to make him hate me so much...”

Camila tried reaching out to her daughter, but Luz recoiled even further into herself, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Cariño... why didn’t you tell me?”

Luz gulped. Now there was no more stopping the tears from rolling down her cheeks. She buried her head in her knees and sobbed quietly to herself.

“You looked so upset when none of the other kids at the playground wanted to play with me. How was I supposed to tell you everyone at school hated me, too?”

Camila covered her mouth with her hand.

“Luz... Oh god, I didn’t... that wasn’t... I wasn’t upset with you. I just wanted you to be able to make friends. You always looked so lonely. That made me sad, yes, but just because I didn’t want _you_ to be sad. All I want is for you to be happy.”

Luz still couldn’t even face her.

“I know you weren’t upset with me. But you were upset _because of me._ You’re always upset because of me,” she whispered. Camila moved a little closer to her daughter and put an arm around Luz’s shoulder. Her daughter just sobbed even harder. “I didn’t want to add another thing to that long list of problems you have to solve because of me.”

“Luz, you’re my daughter! Of course there’s going to be problems I have to solve for you. And that’s okay. I’m _supposed_ to help you. That’s what being a mom _is.”_ Camila was terrified. How had she missed this? _‘How long have you been feeling this way?’_

“You always looked so exhausted when you were called into school. I-” Luz gulped. “I didn’t want you to think of me as even more of a problem child...”

Camila was seconds away from crying herself. What had she done to make her daughter assume she thought of her that way?

[la_fire_chicken_art](https://instagram.com/la_fire_chicken_art?igshid=1waz1ur9k0k9f)

  
“You were never... Luz...” Camila pulled her daughter into a hug. “Why would you think that?”

“Is- isn’t that the reason you sent me to camp in the first place? Because I was too much to deal with how I was? Because you wanted me to be more... more normal?”

Camila’s heart shattered into a million pieces.

“No! Luz… oh God, I don’t…”

“I get it, really, I-” Luz sobbed. “I always cause you so much trouble...”

Camila pulled her daughter even closer, but Luz couldn’t find the strength to hug her back.

“Nothing you do could ever make me love you less, Luz. You’re the best thing that ever happened to me. That’s true during peaceful movie nights as much as it is when we’re fighting or when I have to leave a shift early to pick you up from school. I love you, Luz. I love you so much.”

“I know you do, mom. I love you, too,” Luz whispered, and Camila was sure she meant it, but her daughter still wouldn’t look at her, and Camila felt like she was falling apart further and further with every second of silence.

The rift between them was so much larger than she‘d realized.

“Camp wasn’t because I wanted to change you, I just- I was so scared and I didn’t know what to do, but I didn’t mean to... I never wanted to hurt you, Luz,” Camila whispered.

“But you did.”

The sentence had left her mouth before Luz could stop herself, and now everything she wanted was to somehow erase it, to eat it back up and never let it see the light of day again.

But she couldn’t.

Instead, the three short, terrible words now hung in the air between them, and Luz thought nothing could ever be scarier than the deafening silence that followed.

Then her mom broke down in tears, proving Luz wrong in an instant.

Camila slowly let go of her daughter, Luz’s words still echoing in her head for what felt like a small eternity.

_‘But you did.’_

She’d always told herself she was trying her best to be a good mother for Luz, but... was she? Was she really?

Because if she was, why _had_ she sent her daughter to camp? Why had she let someone else solve an issue her daughter was having, instead of trying to help Luz herself? Why hadn’t she sat Luz down and talked to her and tried to find a solution together, instead of deciding to send her to camp over Luz’s head?

She hadn’t even had a proper conversation with Luz about this. How else was her daughter supposed to interpret this if not as ‘mom wants me to be different’?

_‘How could I have failed to see how hurtful this was?’_

The adult felt as if a giant black hole had opened up in her stomach, the guilt threatening to consume her whole.

Even if camp _had_ really helped Luz, even if she looked happier in the photos than she ever had before... the fact remained that there could have—must have—been a better solution. 

One that didn’t result in Luz feeling like her mom didn’t love her for who she was, and that didn’t tear the already existing rift between them open even further.

_‘No wonder she never tells me anything... God, what have I done?’_

Intentions didn’t matter. Results didn’t matter. The only thing that _did_ matter was that Luz no longer felt like she could trust Camila with her true feelings... and Camila had no one she could blame for that but herself.

“Mom? Mom, I’m so sorry, please don’t cry,” Luz whispered desperately, putting a hand on her mother’s arm. “I didn’t mean-”

“No, you did. And you’re right. Please don’t apologize.” Camila took her daughter’s hands in hers and looked her in the eyes as she continued. “I really messed up, Luz. I told myself I was doing what’s best for you, but... I wasn’t. No matter how well I meant, all I did was convince you I didn’t love you for who you are. I’m sorry. I’m so, so sorry, Luz.”

“Mom...”

“I love you more than anything. I’m so, so incredibly lucky to have a girl as special as you for a daughter. I never wanted to change you, Luz. I love everything about you. Your creativity is wonderful, and I don’t want you to ever lose that. But the incident with the snakes... do you even realize how dangerous that was? You could’ve gotten hurt...”

“I _know,_ I just...” Luz paused, the words sticking in her throat. Why had she done that? Some part of her had known it was a bad idea, she just... “I wanted someone to see me.”

“Oh Luz...” Camila pulled her daughter into another tight hug. “I was so terrified, I just lost my head. I can’t lose you. I don’t know how I’d be able to live with myself if I...” But in her desire to protect Luz, Camila had come close to losing her daughter in another way, and hadn’t even realized it until it had almost been too late. “I shouldn’t have sent you to camp. That was a terrible mistake, Luz. I’m so sorry. Do you think we can fix this? Will you give me a chance to?”

Luz pulled her mom closer. There were tears running down her cheeks again, but it wasn’t just despair in her eyes anymore.

“I’m sorry, too. If I’d just talked to you about this sooner...” Camila rubbed her back and kissed Luz’s head as her daughter sobbed into her chest, in a way she hadn’t since she’d been little. “I should’ve been more honest with you. If we’d just talked about everything more, sooner, maybe none of this would have happened...”

Camila shook her head.

“I didn’t exactly make you feel like you could trust me with this. And I’m at work so much that even if you’d wanted to talk to me more, it wouldn’t have been easy. That’s on me, not on you.”

“Forget it,” Luz protested immediately. “I’m not just letting you pin this on yourself. You’re working so much because you have to, not because you want to spend time away from me. I know you’d spend more time with me if you could. I’d never hold that against you.” She snuggled into her mom’s embrace. “There are two sides to this relationship, okay? And both need to be worked on. Will you give me a chance to fix this, too?”

Camila hugged her daughter tighter.

“God, you’ve grown up so much.” She kissed Luz’s forehead again. “Let’s fix this together.”

Luz nodded, and Camila was pretty sure she’d never felt this relieved in her entire life.

She was still so ashamed of herself, and of everything she’d done wrong... but she would use that to be better now. 

She would do everything she could to be the kind of mother her daughter deserved. 

Luz deserved to feel like she could talk to her mom about her issues, and she deserved to be reassured that no matter what, she would always, _always_ be loved.

“Te quiero, mami.”

“Te quiero.”

Neither of them moved for the next several minutes, and there was a part of Luz that just wanted to stay in her mom’s warm embrace forever. She wanted to pretend she was five again, to live in a world where a hug could fix any problem, one where her heart wouldn't remain weighed down by words unspoken.

Her mom’s hugs had always brought her so much warmth, but Luz hadn’t felt this loved—this seen—in a while, and it was the most incredible feeling in the entire world.

Her mom loved her, _all of her,_ and Luz knew that, now. 

Things would get better. Maybe they could go back to being as easy as they were when Luz had been little.

“I’ll never send you away again.”

Despite her mom’s kind tone, Luz felt a wave of panic wash over her, her body instantly tensing up.

_‘But what about when I go back to the Boiling Isles?’_

...why was _that_ her immediate reaction?

Luz knew this wasn’t what she was supposed to be thinking right now. She wasn’t supposed to be thinking about leaving her mom again right when they started trying to fix things. When her mom was trying to comfort her.

And, even worse, going back was a ‘when’ and not an ‘if’ in her mind—an inevitability, not an option.

The thought made her feel so guilty she thought she might drown.

Her mom had said that to make her feel better, because she felt so guilty for sending Luz to a camp that she _hadn’t even shown up at,_ and here she was, thinking about how she wished she could keep attending school in the Boiling Isles and spend all her summers there with Willow and Gus and Amity and Eda and King and...

_‘I’m a terrible person.’_

Luz slowly moved out of her mother’s embrace, unable to even look at her out of shame.

What her mom had intended as words of comfort instead served as a bitter reminder that things wouldn’t actually be that easy to fix.

The distance between them that had been building up for the past several years wasn’t suddenly gone after one heartfelt conversation.

Luz still wasn’t being honest with her mom—the thought of telling her mother the truth about camp and Amity and _everything_ still turned her stomach to knots.

“Did... did I say something wrong?”

“No...” Luz turned her head away, hoping her mom wouldn’t see the tears that were rolling down her cheeks again. _‘You’re doing everything perfectly right, mom. I’m the one still messing everything up.’_

From her mother’s perspective, what she’d said had been exactly the right thing to say to calm Luz down and make her feel better. The only reason it hadn’t worked how it was supposed to was that Luz was still lying to her mom about where she’d spent her summer.

She rose from the couch and could barely keep herself from running towards the staircase. Anything to be out of this room right now.

Not that leaving would make her feel any less like a terrible daughter...

“I should probably go check on Amity. She’s been up there alone for a while, and I don’t want her to think I’m mad at her or something. Oh, and, I should probably also do my homework,” she added, very well knowing that that was the absolute last thing she’d be doing once she got upstairs. “Love you.”

By the time she said that, she was already halfway up the stairs.

“...love you, too, cariño,” Camila replied, but by then Luz had already disappeared to her room.

The adult’s eyes lingered on the staircase a little longer before she turned away.

Amity wasn’t sure how much time she’d spent staring at her introductory chemistry homework assignment in confusion. There were several different flasks on the sheet that the young witch could barely tell apart in the pictures that all had different names she was somehow supposed to memorize and label... If this was what Boscha did in potions class—the equipment _did_ look somewhat similar—Amity didn’t envy her in the slightest.

_‘No wonder she’s always so grumpy...’_

She lifted her head when she heard the door open and saw Luz step inside.

“How did it...” Amity gulped when she saw her friend’s expression. “...that bad, huh?” She bit her lip. “Is your mom very mad?”

Luz shook her head.

“It was great. She’s not mad at all. I’m really glad I talked to her about all this.” Luz collapsed onto the bed, burying her head in her pillow, and did a very poor job of concealing her sobs. “My mom loves me so much...” And Luz loved her mom, too. She wanted to fix things between them as much as her mom did. _‘But why can’t I turn this stupid feeling of hurt off and be a better daughter, then? Why can’t I just be a little more honest? Why can’t this be easier for me?’_

Amity put down the chemistry book and sat down next to her crush, squeezing Luz’s shoulder gently.

“But isn’t that a good thing?”

**“It is!”**

Luz sounded so desperate and broken that Amity felt her heart shatter at the sound of her voice.

“Luz, what’s wrong?”

“I don’t want to talk about it.” Despite wanting nothing more than to pull her friend close—Luz hadn’t found a single situation yet that wasn’t improved by hugging Amity—she instead found herself saying, “I... kinda just want to be alone for a bit, if that’s okay.”

This wasn’t the kind of thing she could talk to Amity about—how could it be fair to do so, when Luz had two parents that genuinely loved her, and struggled with one of them hurting her out of good intentions? 

Amity didn’t have a single parent worthy to be called that, after all.

Crying to her about the hurt Luz felt about camp when the way Amity’s parents behaved towards her was so, _so much worse_ would have been selfish and cruel, and Amity deserved better than that.

“Oh.” Amity looked at her a little unsure, not comfortable with the thought of leaving Luz alone right now, but ultimately deciding that if Luz really needed space, she should give it to her... especially since Amity knew what not getting personal space when she desperately longed for it felt like. “Of course. I’ll be... downstairs if you need anything. Or change your mind.”

This was Luz’s room, and Luz’s home, after all, and despite the fact that Amity was starting to feel _at home_ here, technically she was still invading someone else’s living space.

She picked up the chemistry book and headed for the door.

Camila had turned on the TV. She couldn’t focus on anything the news anchor was saying, but it beat the silence that had been covering the living room like a veil after Luz had left.

At the sound of footsteps on the stairs, Camila lifted her head.

When she looked up at Amity’s sheepish smile, the distance between Camila and her daughter became even more palpable.

“Hi Ms. Noceda.”

The news anchor was promptly muted.

“Hey Amity.”

Camila had stopped trying to correct the girl’s way of addressing her relatively early on. She still didn’t know that much about Amity... but from the way she reacted to the smallest gestures of kindness, Camila guessed the teen wasn’t very used to having an adult treat her with anything more than polite distance.

She probably needed some time to wrap her head around that concept. And that was okay.

Camila wouldn’t push her.

Amity sat down at the other end of the couch, putting the chemistry homework on the small table in front of her, trying not to think too hard about Luz and about how guilty she felt that after days of being comforted by her, the only useful thing Amity could do for Luz when she was upset was apparently leaving her alone.

Then she looked up at Luz’s mom and remembered that amidst all the emotional chaos, she hadn’t even apologized to Camila for causing her trouble—because while what she’d done and what she’d been accused of were two separate things, her actions had still resulted in Luz’s mom having to leave work.

“I’m sorry. For getting in trouble at school.”

Amity couldn’t meet Camila’s eyes. She’d face whatever punishment the adult decided on with no regrets—protecting Luz and her smile was more important than anything else in the world would ever be—but she still couldn’t bear seeing the disappointment on Camila’s face...

“You have nothing to apologize for.”

Amity blinked. She lifted her head to find Luz’s mom giving her the same kind smile she always did. 

“...you’re not mad at me?”

That Amity knew her own parents would have ripped her head off in a situation like that—metaphorically at least, although she wasn’t entirely convinced the physical option would be completely off the table either—made Camila’s reaction all the more baffling.

“Why would I get mad at you for protecting my daughter?”

“I... it’s not that I regret standing up for Luz. I’d make that same choice again every day for the rest of my life. It’s just...” Amity bit her lip, struggling to find the right way to word it. “I feel guilty about you having to leave work because of me. I’ve been causing you nothing but trouble ever since I got here...”

She lowered her head.

“That’s not true. Trust me, you’ve done a lot more than just that.” Camila’s voice was swirling with several emotions at once, but Amity was almost certain that was a good thing. “I’m really, really grateful to have met you, Amity. Thank you, for sticking up for Luz today, and... and for showing me something I failed to see for a very long time. I don’t... I knew there was a rift in my relationship with Luz... but before today, I never really realized just how large it was. If it hadn’t been for you...” Camila gulped. She didn’t even want to think about that. Because of how badly she’d broken Luz’s trust by sending her to camp, there was no way Luz would have opened up to her anytime soon—and Camila wasn’t sure she would have realized just how much she’d messed up under different circumstances. But thanks to Amity stumbling into their life, they had a chance at fixing things now. She’d forever be grateful for that. “...would it be okay if I hugged you?”

There was a part of Amity that really, _really_ wanted to say yes... but she wasn’t sure if she felt ready for that.

She’d decided over the summer that physical contact with Luz was her favorite thing in the world. But outside of that, it was still something she wasn’t entirely used to.

Amity _liked_ Camila.

This was great, wasn’t it? Luz’s mom wanted to hug her. She didn’t hate her. Titan, if Amity ever actually got to confess and if Luz returned her feelings, Camila would probably even approve of their relationship.

But the images of physical contact with anyone but Luz that flashed through her mind made Amity go rigid with tension.

Her father reinforcing his grip on Amity’s shoulders at a party while he introduced her to the guests. Her mother telling her to stop making a fuss and grabbing her arm when she dyed Amity’s hair for the first time. Lilith’s reassuring pat before the duel that had turned out to just be a ruse to use Amity to stick it to Eda.

Amity shuddered.

That settled it. 

Or, well, it half-settled it, because now she had to actually find a way to say no. 

To an adult. 

Which wasn’t something she’d ever dared to do in her entire life.

“I don't know if-” she stuttered before deciding that she had already inconvenienced Camila enough. “I mean, that is, if you want, then-”

Luz’s mom shook her head.

“Amity, it’s okay if you’re not comfortable with that. That’s not my decision to make. Please don’t ever feel like you have to do anything that makes you uncomfortable just to make someone else happy.”

Amity felt relief wash over her, only for it to clash with a bone-deep sense that this was _wrong._

 _“But I_ do _have to.”_ The reaction that had been drilled into her since the age of three slipped out of her mouth before she could stop herself. What Camila had said sounded like something Amity desperately wanted to agree with. The idea of being able to say no, for that to even be an option, was something she’d wanted for years, but... _‘Good children don’t squabble, dear,’_ her mom’s all too familiar voice whispered at the back of her mind, and Amity’s blood ran cold.

_Her parents would be so disappointed in her if they’d known what she was thinking right now._

“No, you don’t,“ Camila said firmly, pouring all her kindness into every single word. She felt her heart clench at the thought of the kind of environment Amity must have grown up in to result in a mindset like that. Camila felt sick when she realized that the reason Amity had taken so long to speak up earlier was likely the same that she thought she wasn’t allowed to say no now. Amity seemed to have no experience talking back to adults. Instead, she just... froze up. Camila shuddered. What kind of parent taught their child that it was better to accept unfair punishment than to contradict someone in a position of authority? She swore to herself that, if nothing else, the one thing she’d make sure Amity would take away from living with them was that it was alright to disagree with her—and hopefully, by extent, other adults as well. “The only person that gets to set your boundaries is _you._ Okay?”

Amity nodded, albeit reluctantly.

“Okay.”

That gave her... a lot more to think about than she was comfortable admitting right now. And since she didn’t feel ready to confront all that, she rebuilt her walls and went back to agonizing over her chemistry homework.

Camila let her.

Unfortunately, the explanatory text didn’t get any less confusing the fourth time Amity read through it.

“This makes no sense...” she groaned in frustration. “I’ve only been to school for a single day, and I already feel like I don’t understand anything!”

Despite the fact that her school attendance was entirely to keep up the pretense of being a human, the thought of failing any of her tests still made Amity’s heart race with anticipated dread.

She knew her grades here wouldn’t matter in the slightest—it’s not like she would need to know human chemistry to get into the Emperor’s Coven—but after a lifetime of sky-high expectations, her _stupid_ brain couldn’t seem to get the message.

“Do you want me to take a look at it with you? I’m sure we could figure it out together.”

Amity was completely baffled by the offer.

Her own parents would never have demeaned by sacrificing their precious time for something as trivial as their children’s homework.

“Can you?” Amity asked softly after a moment’s hesitation. “There’s so many flasks on this sheet, I’m losing my mind! They all look the same to me!” She bit her lip. “I feel so stupid...”

“Don’t, okay? You’re not stupid.” Camila moved a little closer to Amity so she could take a look at the sheet of paper and the chemistry book, but made sure to keep enough distance so as to not make the girl uncomfortable. She did recognize most of the items, but it took a bit until the names started coming back to her—it had been a while since her pre-med chemistry courses at uni, after all. “Which one do you want to start with?”

Luz had waited until she couldn’t hear Amity’s steps on the stairs anymore, then listened for any other noises—the last thing she wanted was for her mom to walk in on this—before activating the ‘phone’ on the pillow in front of her.

It only took moments for Eda to pick up. She looked tired, but the glow of excitement in her eyes upon seeing Luz was unmistakable.

“Hey mom,” Luz mumbled into the device, guilt washing over her at the ease with which the two little words slipped out after the conversation she’d just had. She loved her mom. This shouldn’t have felt so stupidly right. _‘God, I’m a terrible daughter.’_

“Hey kid.” Eda’s usual toothy smile faltered when she saw her daughter’s upset expression. “What happened? Who do I have to kill?”

Luz gave a halfhearted chuckle, but then her expression turned somber again.

With Eda, these conversations had always been easier. Luz knew she could be as unapologetically chaotic as she wanted, because Eda was exactly the same. Because she could always count on Eda understanding her even when her mother couldn’t.

It wasn’t fair to think that, and Luz hated making that comparison—it wasn’t her mother’s fault that they were very different people. That wasn’t by choice. Luz couldn’t hold that against her, and she didn’t _want_ to... but her heavy heart was a traitor, and as much as she wanted to, she couldn’t just swallow these feelings of hurt and turn them into something else.

“Luz?” Eda’s usual easygoing attitude dropped in an instant when the kid on the other side of the glass started to cry, and, had she known one, she’d have sold her soul to a devil for the ability to reach through the screen and hug Luz, even just a single time. “What is it?”

“I’m a horrible person.”

More and more tears welled up in the teen’s eyes, and she buried her head in her pillow.

Eda frowned and clicked her tongue diapprovingly.

“That’s the biggest load of nonsense I’ve ever heard—and considering how much time I’ve spent talking to Lilith and Hooty respectively, trust me, that’s saying a lot.” Not even the slightest chuckle in response. It was _that_ serious, then. “Do you wanna talk about it?”

After a moment’s hesitation, Luz gave a slight nod, and then everything came flooding out.

Eda listened silently until Luz finished, teary eyes full of guilt looking up at her in desperate search of guidance and reassurance.

“Why am I such an awful daughter? I shouldn’t... I shouldn’t be feeling all those things, but... I don’t know how to stop it. Mom did the best she could, and I just _had_ to mess it up again. Why can’t I just be honest with her and stop feeling like I’m constantly just causing her trouble? How am I supposed to fix this if I’m just sitting around feeling sorry for myself?”

While it wasn’t like Luz had never been afraid of disappointing her mentor—with how much she looked up to Eda, of course she was—but it felt different than it did with her mom.

Luz was pretty sure the only way she could really disappoint Eda was by trying to be anything other than unapologetically herself.

For a long time, Luz had been under the impression that her being herself was the main cause of her mom’s disappointment.

And even after her mom had told her in no uncertain terms that nothing could be further from the truth… some part of Luz feared that maybe, just maybe, it was.

“Kid...” Eda sighed, but she smiled kindly at Luz while she wrecked her brain for the right words. “Never apologize for hurting, okay?” She reached out to ruffle the girl’s hair, then remembered that Luz was in another dimension and that she couldn’t do that, mentally kicking herself when she lowered her arm again. Eda let out an awkward cough and continued. “Trust me, I’ve tried it, and it’s terribly overrated.”

Luz shook her head, more sobs escaping her mouth, her hands moving around in wide, exasperated gestures.

“But my hurt is getting in the way of moving forward! And if I can’t do that, I can never completely _not_ hurt anymore, and I’m gonna make my mom cry again, and we’re forever going to be this broken mess and it will all be my fault!” Her shoulders slumped. “I know our relationship isn’t too broken to be fixed. My mom is trying so hard to do better. Why can’t I just do the same?”

Eda shook her head, kind yellow eyes looking back at the girl.

“C’mon, Luz, give yourself some credit. This isn’t easy.”

 _“But what if it is?_ What if I’m just making things harder for myself because I can’t let go? Because I’m not pushing myself hard enough?” Luz looked—and sounded—so unbearably guilty that Eda thought her heart might shatter. “I- I want to try and fix things with my mom. I really do.” More choked sobs were followed by Luz softly whispering “I love my mom so much.”

Eda couldn’t bear to see her daughter hurt like that. This wasn’t right. She shouldn’t have felt this terrible about not being able to form a perfect bridge from a broken connection at the very first attempt. This couldn’t be what Luz’s mom wanted, either.

Eda closed her eyes, took a deep breath and channeled everything she had into thinking of a way, _any way,_ she could make Luz feel better.

Her thoughts ground to a sudden halt when she remembered the giraffe in the room that she’d made a point of ignoring for the past couple of days.

She didn’t _want_ to be thinking about Lilith right now... but since it was for Luz, Eda forced herself to ignore her own hurt to revisit past, forlorn hopes about fixing the relationship that had once been the steady center of her otherwise chaotic, unsteady life—hopes that seemed even further away after everything that had happened in the last few days.

“I know you do, kid. And I’m sure she knows it, too. If you didn’t care about her as much as you do, she would never have been able to hurt you so badly. If we open our hearts to someone, we make ourselves incredibly vulnerable.” The adult found herself surprised at her own flowery language. She hadn’t talked like that since she’d been a naive, uncursed teen... since before she’d turned her heart to stone to not risk anyone getting close to her again. It was truly a testament to how much Luz had changed her. “Forgiveness takes time if you’ve been hurt this badly. I’m sure your mom understands that. You have to allow yourself to hurt right now. That’s the only way you will ever truly feel better.”

“But... I just... _why does this have to be so hard?”_

Luz sniffled, burying her head in her pillow again as she cried to herself, and Eda would have given up all her magical abilities if it had just meant she could hold the teen right now. 

Since she couldn’t, she at least made sure to give her daughter the best advice she was capable of giving.

“I know that’s not what you want to hear right now, but it’s perfectly normal for this to be hard. It sucks, but... You have to give your relationship time to heal, okay?” Luz slowly blinked up at her mentor again, tears sparkling in her eyes, her expression desperate and unbearably crushed. Eda smiled back at her and continued, in a gentler voice than she would have thought herself capable of just a couple of months ago. “Your mom hurt you, and just because she didn’t mean to doesn’t mean you don’t still have the right to feel that way. Detaching yourself from that impression of her takes time. Give her a chance to show you that’s not how she really feels. And don’t expect your hurt to just vanish overnight. That’s not how this works, and that’s okay.” Eda paused, trying to think of a way to phrase this without putting any more pressure on the poor girl. “Can you promise me you’ll try not to beat yourself up for that, Luz?”

The teen bit her lip. She knew Eda was right, she couldn’t force this, but it was still painful to think about. She didn’t want her relationship with her mom to be this broken. If she could have, she would have just gone back to the way it had been when she was little... before things had become so complicated.

Luz loved her mom so, _so much._ She didn’t want their relationship to be so complicated and so full of hurt anymore. She just wanted things between them to be okay again. She wanted to stop feeling like she was constantly disappointing her mom with everything she did, and, selfish as she was, she wanted Camila to be proud of her the way Eda was.

Maybe one day, she would be.

But for now... Eda was right. As difficult as that was to accept, Luz would have to relearn to communicate with her mom more openly, one step at a time, and blaming herself that the doubts she carried didn’t dissolve faster wouldn’t help the matter in the slightest.

She needed to go at her own pace. If she could just be patient with herself and actually _try,_ they would be able to fix this.

Her relationship with her mom could go back to being what it was supposed to be. And Luz could hug her again without having to worry about anything standing between them.

The thought filled her with a combination of longing, sadness, and warmth that made Luz’s heart ache in her chest.

“Okay. I promise,” she said, smiling up at Eda thankfully. Then she whispered quietly, “...can we talk about something else?”

As grateful as Luz was for having all these things off her chest, and for Eda listening to her and comforting her to the best of her abilities, what she really needed right now was to focus on just about anything other than her day at school.

She’d spent so much of today hurting already. Right now, all she wanted was to talk with Eda and forget the world outside her room.

“‘Course, kid,” Eda replied—it wasn’t like she’d ever been good at telling Luz ‘no’ to begin with—and she knew just the thing to change the topic to. “...so, how’s living with Amity?”

Eda raised an eyebrow and looked at Luz with a knowing smile, causing the girl to dissolve into a flustered mess— _had it really been that obvious to everyone but_ _her?_ —and maybe, after the day she’d had, that was exactly what she needed.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for reading! As always, feedback would be really appreciated!  
> I’M DONE MAKING LUZ CRY FOR NOW, I SWEAR!  
> I made myself extremely upset with this chapter.  
> But hey, we’re working through our issues now!  
> Progress!  
> “Sorry” isn’t the “magically fixes everything immediately”-word. But it _is_ the first step of a journey that will make things better if you work on it.  
> Luz’s relationship with her mom is very dear to me because it’s a very real one—we often find ourselves hurting the people we love most, even if both sides aren’t entirely in the wrong and just want to avoid hurting each other.  
> I’ve been there, and I’m sure many others have too.  
> It’s a situation that very much sucks for everyone involved because all parties just _mean_ well, but they still end up hurting each other.  
> Honest, open conversations are key to fixing things, even if they hurt.  
> I hope you... uh... enjoyed this? I hope I didn’t make you cry too much? 😅  
> God this took ages. Luz’s conversation with Camila was an extremely difficult one to write, as was this chapter in general, because it was necessary to make Camila see her faults, but without demonizing her.  
> Like I said at the beginning, mistakes are human. That’s as true for loving parents as it is for children.  
> And that’s what I will leave you with today!  
> Happy Holidays again, and in case I don’t manage to update once more before that (which I hope I will, but can’t promise), Happy New Year everyone!
> 
> If you want to read something less sad now, I recommend the fic inspired by this one that you can find at the bottom of the chapter, which is a very cute, happy fic about Luz and Amity building a pillow fort :D
> 
> Also... you guys might wanna check out chapter nine again, there’s art now 😉


	12. Playing With Fire

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Before we get into this chapter, I’d like you all to take a minute to go through the earlier chapters again because I’ve added a bunch of art commissions since the last update! Show some love to the wonderful creators that did these please!  
> Also, before anyone gets super confused the next time I update: I’m gonna take down the not-chapter in a couple of days because the off chapter count is really bothering me. So if the total chapter count is still at thirteen the next time I update, that’s correct! There’s still a new chapter! I just took down the art one!  
> Once again, this is a long chapter—somewhat over 10k. So make sure you have time to read!  
> This one is less sad than the last one though, I promise :D

Eda set the plate down on the table and sighed to herself.

It was the sixth day in a row that she'd put an extra plate out for Luz. She was so used to the kid having breakfast with her that Eda couldn't seem to wrap her head around the fact that Luz wasn't here anymore as she set the table.

It was the fourth day in a row that, instead of putting the extra plate back, Eda went back to the cupboard to get an additional one, once her sleepy mind recalled that she had two extra mouths to feed as of this weekend.

_'Right. That's why I put the additional plate on the table. No other reason.'_

Eda glanced over into the living room, and found the situation exactly as she'd expected it to be.

Emira was still asleep on the couch—or at the very least pretending to be—while her brother was already up, and, from the noise levels, having a lively chat with Hooty outside, much to King's dismay.

“He's so much more annoying when he has someone to talk to!” King complained, curled up in his usual sunny spot next to the window. “What kind of ear protection is the girl using that lets her sleep through this, and why won't she share it?”

Eda chuckled.

Despite everything, she'd heard a pretty minimal level of King complaints this week—especially considering the twins were currently occupying what he considered _his_ couches.

...that last part was likely because the little twerp had spent the past week sleeping in Luz's room.

 _'You don't miss Luz in the slightest, huh?'_ Eda's lips curled into a small smile. “I mean, you could always quit your complaints and help with breakfast.”

“Naaaah.” He yawned. “I'm asleep! Sorry.”

Eda rolled her eyes.

“Of course you are.”

She rubbed her eyes and turned back to the stove to stir the large scrambled egg she was making.

Luz had liked eggs for breakfast.

It seemed like there was nothing, nothing, _nothing_ Eda could do anymore without being reminded of her daughter in some way.

It sucked, but in a way, it was also somewhat nice that the kid was still somehow everywhere, even when she wasn't really there anymore.

Emira also liked eggs for breakfast—or, at least that was what Edric had said. 

Eda played the guessing game with her way more than she had to with Edric, though both of them were far harder for her to read than Luz had ever been. 

Sometimes it had almost scared Eda how easy it had been for Luz to open up to her, ever the excitable ball of light with more curiosity than common sense.

The twins weren't much like Luz. Of course, there were times when Eda looked at one of them and felt herself reminded of Luz in some way... but she figured that said more about how much Eda missed her kid than it did about Edric or Emira.

It had been this way with Lily and her parents, too, back when she'd dropped out of school and left home so many years ago.

_'When you miss someone, you start seeing a little bit of them in everything. That's just how it is.'_

The twins couldn't replace Luz. Nobody could. That wasn't why Eda let them stay—although their presence was a welcome distraction and made sure the house wasn't so quiet that Eda would be left alone with her thoughts.

They were allowed to stay because they _needed_ someone. And Eda did her very best to _be_ that someone, despite it not being a job that she considered herself cut out for.

This was the person Luz had taught her to be. Even if they never saw each other again—well, in person, because Eda was planning to bug Luz via crystal ball for the rest of her life in that case—more than anything, she wanted to be the kind of witch Luz had always seen in her. The one that was so much better than Eda had thought herself capable of being for the longest time.

She found comfort in the fact that this part of Luz, the part that had made such a lasting impression on her that it had changed Eda to her very core, would be with her forever, no matter how long she and her daughter remained separated.

The last few days with the twins had been hard for a number of reasons.

Monday had gotten off to a less than stellar start.

Eda had spent a bit of time making sure the twins were both sound asleep after Edric had finally nodded off before returning to the nest the night before, sleeping for only a couple of hours before rudely being woken up yet again by someone shaking her.

Interrupting her sleep was a great way for anyone to earn Eda's ire... but the poor kid had looked so freaked out she hadn't even managed to get mad at him.

“Something's really really wrong with Em.”

Edric's haunted expression took Eda from half-asleep to wide awake in seconds.

“Whoa, slow down, kiddo,” Eda said as she pushed herself up to a sitting position, looking over the edge of her nest at the kid. “What happened?”

“I- I don't know.” His voice was shaking. “Can you just come downstairs?”

“I'll be right there.” She was halfway out the nest when she remembered that maybe some soothing words would be a good idea. “Uh, deep breaths, okay? Whatever it is, you won't have to deal with it alone.”

Edric was hugging her as soon as Eda had two feet on the ground. As Eda hugged him back, noting the way he faintly trembled, she silently vowed that she would end those slugs that called themselves parents if they were ever unlucky enough to cross her path.

“I'm scared,” he whispered after a few silent, shaky breaths.

“I know, kid,” Eda replied. “It's okay to be scared. To quote one of Luz's corny books: 'If you have no fears to overcome, you can never truly be brave'. Cheesy line, terrible writing, but I'll admit the author _does_ have a point sometimes.” 

After a moment of silence, Edric snickered just the tiniest bit, his lips turning into a small smile despite the circumstances. 

“Did you just quote a kid's book at me to cheer me up?” 

Eda scowled.

“Look, I never said I was good at this.” 

Somehow, that just made his smile grow. 

“Thank you.”

It wasn't something that would've been obvious to anyone that met her, but he'd found that behind her sarcastic attitude, Eda cared _so much._ That was all he'd ever wished for in a parent. 

“You don't need to thank me for that, kid.” Eda waved her hand dismissively. “Now let's go check on your sister.”

Edric immediately rushed to his Emira's side when he got back downstairs.

“Will someone tell me what happened now?” Eda asked. 

Edric looked at his sister, who gave a slight nod, before answering.

“When I woke up she was on the floor and couldn't get back up. I moved her back onto the couch, but other than that, I didn't know what to do.”

The poor kid was clearly beating himself up, despite having done exactly the right thing by helping her up before going to get Eda.

“Everything hurts,” Emira whispered, her voice cracking as if she barely managed to keep herself from crying. She looked ashamed of how vulnerable she was. “I can't do magic, and I can barely move...”

The poor kid was terrified, nothing remaining of the casual, snarky attitude Eda knew from the few visits the Blight twins had paid to the Owl House prior to this incident.

Emira's skin, already pale under normal circumstances, had lost its remaining color and was almost white.

Eda shuddered.

This all seemed so terribly familiar.

Broken glasses on the wooden floor, her older sister sprawled out unconscious in front of her bed, fresh panic surfacing when Lily's shallow, pained breaths filled Eda's head again...

Eda gulped, took a deep breath and pushed the memory to the back of her mind. Now was _not_ the time.

The good news was that Eda immediately knew what was up.

“Kid, how badly did you run yourself into the ground yesterday? This is almost impressive.”

Eda had trouble maintaining her usual casual air, but she figured the kids were too preoccupied to notice the tremble in her voice.

Best she could do right now was to not make a big deal out of this to not get Emira to freak out even more.

“I... might have gone a bit overboard tearing the dining room apart,” Emira mumbled. 

Had she been any less freaked out, she might have managed a satisfied smile at how good that had felt.

Edric gave his sister a proud smile and ruffled her hair. She groaned in annoyance, which he by far preferred over the pained whimpering from earlier.

“She destroyed half the furniture. It was a little scary, but also very cathartic to watch.”

Emira let out a weary laugh.

“Glad you enjoyed the show, Ed. Since my magical abilities are still gone, though, I think it might've been my last performance.”

That thought scared her more than she liked to admit.

“You're going to be fine.” Eda gave the teen a sympathetic look. “First burnout, huh?”

Emira grimaced.

“Burnout?”

“Yeah. I used to have these about once a week back when I was younger.” After the curse had started messing with her magic, to be precise. Still an uncomfortable topic to think about, but preferable to the memory of the Emperor's Coven continuously pushing her sister over the edge. “It happens when you hit your limit. You know how our bile sacks can only produce so much magic at once? Well, our bodies are used to having a certain amount of it in our veins at all times. There's a limit you can't go over under regular circumstances. Sometimes, in emergency situations, we—knowingly or not—go over that limit, for self-defense or because we're pushing ourselves too hard. For the moment, it means you suddenly feel like you have a huge influx of extra magic you can use... until it's all used up, and _bam,_ you just collapse because your body isn't used to functioning without it properly. That's what we call a magic burnout.” Eda shuddered as she realized she sounded horribly similar to a teacher giving a lecture... but Emira seemed to be relaxing a bit, so maybe she wasn't doing _everything_ wrong. “Your bile sack just needs some time to get the magic in your blood back to regular levels. I know it doesn't feel great right now, but it's going to be okay.”

Emira looked up at her suspiciously. She was obviously still a bit scared, which wasn't surprising considering the circumstances.

“I'm really going to be alright?”

Eda nodded and gave the girl a sympathetic smile.

“Like I said, I had those a lot when I was younger, and, as you can see, I'm doing fine. You have nothing to worry about, I promise.” Both twins visibly relaxed. “Isn't this taught in schools anymore?” Eda asked, raising an eyebrow in confusion. “I swear, it was this huge precautionary tale about how 'control is everything' and 'always listen to your teachers and don't go off the rails or you will end up with a magical burnout one day' back when I was your age,” Eda said in a terrible imitation of Principal Bump.

Emira grimaced, but then managed a small smile as she shrugged.

“I mean, to be fair, we cut classes a lot.”

Eda chuckled.

“I knew I liked you kids for a reason.”

“How long is this going to last? Is there anything we can do to help her?” Edric asked, glancing from his sister to Eda and then back at Emira.

“Not too long. A day or two, depending on how much magic she used. And... hmmm.” Eda thought for a moment. “Nutritious meals usually help, meaning I should probably cook something.”

“Can I... can I help?” Edric offered immediately. “I mean, I'm not very good at it, but-”

He looked at her sheepishly. He was obviously still immensely freaked out, and wanted to help his sister any way he could.

It was really sweet, and also reminded Eda of what her own relationship with her sister had been like when they'd been younger an uncomfortable amount.

“Eh, whatever.” Eda shrugged. “It's not exactly my strong suit either, but I kept myself, King and Luz alive so far, so it should probably be fine.”

Emira grimaced.

“Glad to know I'm in good hands...”

Edric grinned at his sister teasingly, a huge wave of relief washing over him.

“Any wishes when it comes to what kind of food you want us to screw up for you, Em?” he joked, getting nothing but an eye-roll in return.

“Yeah, very funny.”

He ruffled her hair again, resulting in annoyed, but also very tired and therefore not very convincing protest.

“Take it easy today, yeah? We got this.”

The rest of the week was a mixed bag.

Gus and Willow had come over to work on the portal after school every day—the rough wooden door was coming together nicely, the wood from the singing forest far more compliant (and less whiny) under Willow's hands than it had been when Eda made her first portal.

The others had been filled in on what happened on Monday—not very in-depth, little more than _'telling our parents went terribly and we kinda live here now'_ , which resulted in a very angry Willow struggling to keep her vines under control before calming down and heading out for some pain-relieving roots.

After that, the twins had been under strict instruction to take it easy for the day and not worry about helping with the portal.

Tuesday had been... pretty terrible. 

Despite everything else they were currently keeping from Amity, the twins had decided that she at least deserved to know what had happened with their parents the previous evening. The issue of _how_ exactly they would break the news to Amity, though, had weighed on them so heavily that neither twin seemed to get a good night's rest in the night between Monday and Tuesday.

Both of them had been so worked up over it that they hadn't eaten much the entire day, and Emira felt miserable over not being able to help with the portal on Tuesday, either, as she was still under Eda's orders to take it easy and let herself recover.

Emira hadn't spoken a single word after the call that evening. She'd simply curled up into a ball and remained on the couch, motionless, for the next several hours.

Edric had tried talking to her several times, but she'd just pulled the blanket over her head and mumbled at him to go away, and eventually, he'd complied.

Eda had watched on from afar. If the kid's brother wasn't getting through to her, no way would she want some old witch bothering her. The best thing Eda could do was wait.

It felt… bad.

_'Look at that, huh? I barely even know this kid, yet here I am, caring about her emotional well-being. What have you done to me, Luz?'_

Emira had helped as much as she could with saturating the portal with magic on Wednesday—Eda’s and Edric’s protest on that matter had fallen on deaf ears—but other than that, she'd mostly just slept a lot and barely eaten or spoken to anyone that day.

Edric was immensely worried about her.

That much was obvious.

He was surprisingly open, far more so than his sister was.

He was quicker to start a conversation with Eda, and even less reluctant to wake Eda in the middle of the night if he couldn't sleep again.

...she couldn't even be mad about that.

He'd needed another hug or two, and they'd had tons of casual chats about pranks they'd pulled or the latest silly orb shows that neither of them was able to take seriously... but he'd also talked a bit more about his parents, and a bit about Amity, and he'd even asked Eda for advice on how to help Emira—not that Eda was in any way an expert at handling issues with siblings.

That was another difficulty the last few days had brought—and one she felt even less ready to confront.

When Eda looked at the twins, saw how much they cared about each other while hiding it behind a veneer of pranks and good-natured teasing, it was hard not to see Lily and herself in them.

She'd even dreamed of her sister a couple of times this week. Of burned food and potion mishaps and weekends spent reading when the boiling rain danced on their parents' carefully constructed protection spell, keeping them cooped up inside...

Speaking of burned foods, however, Lily had always been cheered up by having her favorite breakfast food when she was down. 

And even though this was far more serious than some sixth grade breakup or a bad yearbook photo, it had to be at least worth a shot, right? So Eda had asked Edric what his sister liked, and today she was making eggs for breakfast.

Because that was who Eda was now. 

Up at nine on a Thursday to make breakfast for the two runaway teens occupying her couches.

...maybe they should go looking for proper beds soon.

On Thursday, Luz awoke to a minor headache and no memory of falling asleep.

After a couple of disoriented blinks, she concluded that one, she was in bed, and two, apparently she had been laying face down?

That was odd. Luz never slept on her stomach.

A quick glance towards the comfortably warm far side of the bed confirmed what she had been hoping—that the source of that cozy warmth was Amity was cuddled up against her side again, one arm wrapped around Luz's lower back and one of her legs sprawled out across Luz's.

After almost a week of sharing a bed, Luz knew Amity always accidentally took up a lot of mattress space while she was asleep.

_'That, and she's a total blanket hogger.'_

It was, all things considered, pretty adorable. 

There was no feeling quite as amazing as having Amity this close to her.

Luz was relieved to see Amity with her. Some part of her had worried that in sending Amity away after the emotionally draining conversation with her mom, she had hurt her friend's feelings, maybe to the point of not wanting to share the bed anymore.

Luz had been planning to talk to Amity about that after her chat with Eda, but...

_'Wait, why didn't I?'_

She clicked on her phone to check the time, rubbed her bleary eyes in disbelief, then looked again. The time was still the same.

It was 4:17 in the morning.

“What the...”

Headache or not, she shouldn't have been as awake as she was _this early._

Then she realized she was still in yesterday's clothes, and it finally dawned on her.

“I fell asleep during my call with Eda, didn't I?”

That explained why she was so hungry at four in the morning, at least. She'd slept through both lunch and dinner.

...which also meant she hadn't even started her homework yet. The homework that was due today.

“Uh oh.”

But if she got up now, she'd risk waking Amity... during the _one_ night she seemed to actually not be having a nightmare.

Luz couldn't bring herself to do it.

She gave herself another twenty minutes to fall back to sleep, but to no avail. The cuddles were nice, but Luz was just too antsy and hungry to sleep. At 4:40, she carefully slipped out from under Amity's arms, luckily successful in her attempt not to wake her friend.

A quick shower later, Luz was dressed in a fresh change of clothes, fully awake, and ready to try and tackle at least some of her homework before school—after a snack, at least.

Or, she would have been, if the quick glance in the mirror hadn't revealed she was missing the little pink flower hair clip she'd been wearing every day since Amity had given it to her.

It wasn't just that the clip was growing on Luz—although it definitely was—but given that it was the whole reason Amity was stuck here, Luz felt like the least she could do was wear it all the time.

Her heart froze as she realized she hadn't taken it off before getting in the shower, either. Luz didn't normally sleep with it on, but since she'd nodded off fully clothed yesterday and couldn't remember taking it out, it should have been in her hair, and if it wasn't, that meant she'd lost it while she'd been asleep.

_'Oh god I hope it isn't broken.'_

Luz panicked at the thought, which only doubled when she realized she couldn't even look for the clip. Amity was still asleep, and rummaging around the bed would definitely wake her, so that was out of the question.

“It's fine! It's totally fine! I'm just gonna stand here and not search the bed and quietly freak out and I'm sure all my teachers are going to be super understanding when I explain to them that I didn't do my homework because I was busy _not_ searching for a hair clip!”

Thankfully, her rumbling stomach pulled her out of the spiraling panic.

Luz concentrated on her reflection in the bathroom mirror and took a couple of deep breaths to calm herself down.

This was bad, and she felt horrible, but freaking out right now wouldn't accomplish anything.

“Okay, first thing's first, I'm gonna go get some food. I'm starving. After that... we'll see.”

Luz ended up being too focused on the hair clip to properly concentrate on eating. Had someone asked her what she'd eaten or how it had tasted, she would've turned up a blank... but at least her stomach wasn't grumbling at her anymore. That had to count for something, right?

When Luz returned to her bedroom, Amity lifted her head.

“Mgh... there you are,” she mumbled sleepily.

“Oh god, did I wake you? I'm so sorry!”

Amity shook her head.

“Tossed a bit. Ended up on my back.” She grimaced. “I think the spell wore off.”

“Oh no.” Luz closed the door, turned on the ceiling light and sat down next to Amity, rifling through her nightstand drawer for a notepad and pen. “I'm so sorry I fell asleep yesterday!”

“Don't apologize, okay? I...” Amity hesitated for a moment. “I know yesterday was difficult for you, and if you fell asleep that early, you probably needed the sleep. I _have_ kept you up quite a few times this week, after all. I'm not going to ask you to put my health above yours.”

Luz was torn between guilt and gratitude. Amity shouldn't have had to go without a healing spell... but the fact that the once-closed off girl cared so openly and obviously about Luz meant more to her than she could ever put into words.

“God, what did I do to deserve you?” Amity's only reply was a soft smile that made Luz's heart flutter in her chest. “Let's get you patched up.”

By the time they were done, it was five in the morning.

“Maybe you should try to get some more sleep,” Luz suggested. “I still need to do my homework.”

Her persistent headache made the idea less than thrilling, but she didn't exactly have a choice.

She sighed and started getting up from the mattress again, but Amity stopped her by reaching for her hand.

“Your mom actually wrote a letter to your teachers for any homework you missed,” she explained. “After what happened yesterday at school, you can't really be blamed for not doing them.”

“Oh, did she?”

That was sweet. In that case... maybe Luz didn't need to try to rush and still get everything done before school. 

“Yeah.” Amity pulled her a little closer. “Can't you just come back to bed for a bit? I'm still tired, and I miss hugging you.”

Now _that_ was a difficult request to deny.

“Awww. I still can't believe you're not a morning person. That has like, totally ruined my perception of you,” Luz joked.

“I _am_ a morning person!” Amity protested, though her point was undercut slightly by following it up with a yawn. “Just not before I absolutely need to be.”

Luz chuckled, playfully nudging Amity's shoulder.

“Alright you morning person, back to bed we go.”

Amity beamed at her, making space so Luz could move to her usual spot closer to the wall. Luz quickly threw on some pajamas—sleeping in her regular clothes one time per day was more than enough—before climbing back into bed.

“Oh, by the way,” Amity mumbled as she took Luz back into her arms. “You napped off with the hair clip yesterday. Figured you didn't want it to break so I put it on the bedside table.”

Luz breathed a sigh of relief.

She'd completely forgotten about that amidst her worry about Amity, but she'd surely have gone back to panicking about it when she woke up next.

“Well, that's one mystery solved, I guess.”

Amity chuckled a bit, sleepily pulling Luz closer as she covered both of them with the blanket again.

“What, were you _that_ worried about a hair clip?”

Luz was lucky she was facing away from Amity; it meant her blush could go unnoticed.

“Maybe. It just... means a lot to me, okay?”

Amity yawned, taking Luz's right hand in hers.

_Gosh, nothing in the world could ever be as comfortable as being in Amity's arms like this._

“Titan, you're adorable.”

“You've gone _soooo_ soft on me,” Luz mumbled. Amity seemed to be especially affectionate this morning, and Luz had zero complaints. “I'm so proud of you.”

Closing her eyes brought welcome relief to her lingering headache. Between that, and the comforting warmth of Amity's arms around her, Luz dozed off to sleep in minutes.

As Willow and Gus made their way down to the Grudgby field amidst the scores of students streaming out from Hexside's front steps, Willow was beginning to have a few doubts. Telling Boscha off yesterday had felt _amazing,_ but as she and Gus made small talk that neither of them truly had the heart for, it was dawning on Willow that she had signed herself up to play on a school team for a sport she had done once in her life. A team that played in front of hundreds of spectators for their official matches.

The thought of messing up in front of that many people made her stomach churn.

_'Maybe this wasn't such a great idea, after all.'_

But she couldn't exactly back out now…

As they arrived at the Grudgby field, Willow couldn't help but overhear her now-teammates' discussion.

"Ugh, she's probably not even gonna show, this is stupid," Boscha huffed.

Willow clenched her fists, suddenly filled with fresh determination. So what if she'd only played Grudgby once before in her life? 

She'd been good at it. She had powerful magic she could use, and she was no weakling in the physical department, either.

Willow was going to wipe that stupid, gleeful grin right off of Boscha's face once and for all.

"Boscha, I'm not sure if that's-" Amelia started, but quickly fell silent at a pointed glare from Boscha.

Skara crossed her arms.

"Will you calm down? School just got out. She's gonna be here."

Willow cleared her throat and the three girls spun around.

"You know, for all the fuss you made about telling me not to be late, you never actually specified a time. Yet here you are, complaining about me behind my back anyways." 

It had only been about five minutes since school had ended, and naturally, changing into the Grudgby uniform had taken a bit of time.

_What was Boscha’s problem?_

Boscha and patience seemed to go together about as well as Amity and relaxation...

Boscha fixed Willow with the signature three-eyed glare Willow had been on the receiving end of hundreds of times, but managed to bite her tongue, realizing just in time that whatever she wanted to say would break the terms of their agreement.

It was, simply put, hilarious.

Skara didn't _say_ anything, but her cheeky, innocent smile all but screamed _‘I told you so.’_

"Hi Willow." Amelia offered a shy, somewhat sheepish smile in her direction. "Thanks again for agreeing to try this."

Willow managed a small smile in return, hoping they couldn't see how forced it was. It would probably be a while until she got used to willingly being so close to the girls that had picked on her for so long. As it was, there was a stifling atmosphere to the group that only she seemed to feel. 

Meanwhile, Boscha sized up Gus in displeasure.

"What's he doing here?"

"I'm here for moral support," Gus replied immediately, crossing his arms and standing resolutely at Willow's side.

Boscha rolled her eyes, barely able to bite back a snarky comment. They'd not even started yet, and this arrangement was already starting to get on her nerves.

Amelia just shrugged.

"As long as you do your 'moral support'-thing from the bleachers and not on the field, you can stay. It's whatever. Just don't get in the way."

Gus looked at Willow, and after a bit of hesitation, she nodded.

A moment later, there were ten of him scattered all over the bleachers, ready to cheer for his best friend… or intervene on her behalf if that became necessary.

Boscha hadn't directly addressed Willow at all up until this point. When she stomped up to her, Willow smiled, very much ready to hold their deal over the other girl's head should she do anything rude in the slightest.

"Is there something you want?"

Boscha opened her mouth as if to say something, then abruptly closed it again. 

Willow raised an eyebrow.

It only got more confusing the second and third time Boscha did it, until finally, she said, "we’ll do conditioning first, see how you keep up with the actual players. I want to see four laps around the field from everyone, stat."

And then she just walked off to watch from the side of the field, leaving Willow to wonder what in the name of the Titan that had just been.

Willow didn't like running. She wasn't horrifically bad at it—being friends with Luz meant sooner or later you got used to running away from things on a regular basis—but it still wasn't her strong suit, and it was showing. 

By her fourth lap she was breathing hard, and there was a slight burn in her legs. She was the last of the three to finish, a fact that inspired an entirely different sinking feeling in her chest. Skara and Amelia were waiting for her by the side of the track, Amelia drinking deeply from a water bottle, while Boscha stood off to the side, holding a stopwatch with an unreadable expression on her face.

Expecting the worst as she jogged over to them, Willow was caught completely off guard when Skara brightened as she noticed Willow's approach and waved her over. 

"Hey, not bad, newbie! You're definitely gonna need some conditioning, but I'm pretty sure you beat my tryout time." 

"Uh, thanks?" Willow squinted, but could detect not even a hint of mockery on Skara's face.

Boscha stomped over, carrying her stopwatch in her good hand. First she told Amelia that her time was "adequate for now, but needs improvement before the end of the season," then Skara that her own was "borderline pitiful," to which the bard-track witch simply rolled her eyes. Willow, despite her resolution to stick it to her bully, braced herself for the worst when Boscha walked over… but Boscha simply stared at her for several long seconds before turning away. 

"Amelia, show her proper form for leg lunges, then all three of you show me two sets of twenty." 

The leg lunges were even more awkward than the laps had been. Amelia's example was fine, but Willow nearly lost her balance several times during her sets, and could tell her own form was sloppy. However, just as before, neither Amelia nor Skara showed any disdain for her performance, while Boscha said nothing at all, simply staring at her before declaring they would move on to the next exercise. 

When Boscha declared that they would be doing push-ups next, Willow could have grinned with glee. 

"Skara, you show her how to do it right," Boscha said while picking at her sling in clear disinterest. 

Willow rolled her eyes as Skara dusted her palms off. 

"How many?" Willow asked impatiently, causing Skara to pause and Boscha to look up at her in surprise. 

"What?" 

"I know what a push-up is, Boscha. How many?" 

Willow might be new to Grudgby, but she was no stranger to strength training. There was no way she would let Boscha talk down to her about this of all things. 

Skara seemed to be enjoying the show as Boscha glared at Willow, clearly not having expected any interruptions. 

"Three sets of fifteen, then, if you're such an expert," she said finally. 

_'What, that's it?'_

Willow drew a tiny spell circle in the air and summoned a stretchy shoot of springvine, which she used to tie her hair back in a loose ponytail. She had gotten hair in her mouth while doing push-ups more than enough times, thank you very much. 

Willow could feel the others staring as she dropped to the ground to begin her push-ups, but for once, the feeling emboldened her, rather than making her shrink back in fear. Willow hadn't done sets of fifteen since she was just starting out with lifting—okay, and maybe some part of her wanted to show off just a bit—so she decided she might as well get them all done at once. It was a motion she'd performed thousands of times: legs straight together, balanced on the tips of her toes, elbows out to the side and palms flat against the tarmac. She ended up nearly losing herself in the practiced motion, almost overshooting the goal of 45. When she rose, barely even breathing hard, Boscha was staring at her in blank confusion, while Skara's eyebrows were raised so high they seemed in danger of escaping her forehead.

"Is that all, captain?" 

Willow would forever treasure the several seconds of silence that followed as Boscha visibly struggled for a response that wouldn't break the terms of their contract. Screw her doubts, this whole arrangement was worth it just to see Boscha being forced to shut up for once. 

"Let's see what you can do on the field." 

Skara thought this might be the best practice ever. She would admit, despite what she had assured Boscha, part of her had been a bit worried that Willow wouldn't show. She had every reason to have second thoughts about this whole arrangement, after all. But not only had she shown up, she had blown their expectations out of the water!

The cardio and leg lunges had been fine, but seeing the look on Boscha's face go from barely restrained mockery to open shock as Willow knocked out all 45 pushups at once—in perfect form, no less!—without so much as breaking a sweat? Now that was priceless.

"So like, we're gonna have the field turned off for this, so you don't need to worry about getting burnt or mangled or dragged under the arena," Skara explained as the four of them made their way from the running track towards the Grudgby pitch. Boscha had stomped ahead of them, clearly sulking, while Skara and Amelia walked to either side of Willow, who seemed oddly jittery for some reason. "We used to train with it on, but for some reason it was hard to find new recruits." 

"I can't imagine why," Willow said dryly. 

There was a reason she had considered herself a Grudgby fan in spectator terms only. 

"Okay, so. Probably the most important skill to be consistent at in Grudgby is passing and receiving the ball from your teammates. With magic, traps, and other players all flying around, you'll need to be able to assess when you've got a shot and when you don't, and either pass to your teammates accordingly, or be ready to receive the ball should you be given the opportunity. The bottom line of all this, of course, is being able to throw and catch the ball without dropping it." 

Tossing a Grudgby ball from one hand to another as she spoke, Amelia seemed transformed into a completely different person. Willow was pretty sure she'd never Amelia speak for that long before, and she projected her voice with an air of authority. Even as a bully, Amelia had mostly seemed to play support to Boscha's ringleader role with the occasional jab towards Willow. This was a side of her Willow had never seen.

"Here, Willow. Catch." 

Willow was snapped out of her thoughts by Amelia calling her name. She expected to look up and find a ball already sailing towards her, but was pleasantly surprised to see Amelia simply holding the Grudgby ball in one palm. Seeing that she had Willow's attention, Amelia tossed the ball to her in a slow, underhanded arc. Willow nearly fumbled catching it anyways, but managed to hold on to the ball, much to her relief. 

"Good." Amelia nodded approvingly at Willow. "That was an underhand throw. They're slower and easier to intercept, but sometimes that hang time is important to let a teammate get into a receiving position—uh, sorry," Amelia said with a sheepish smile, scratching the side of her head. "That's a bit more advanced tactics. Mind throwing the ball back to me?"

Willow tried to imitate the underhand throw Amelia had used. It went a bit high, nearly sailing over the girl's shoulder, but Amelia deftly snagged it out of the air and returned it to its spot under her arm.

"The other, more common type of throw is… something I probably shouldn't demonstrate on you," Amelia said. "Skara, if you would?" 

Skara saluted playfully and jogged out until she was a good ten yards away from Willow and Amelia. She was relieved that Amelia had thought to demonstrate an overhand with her; getting smacked with one of Amelia's fastballs would be a great way to drive Willow off on their first day of practice. 

"So, the most commonly used type of pass is an overhand. It's fast, harder to intercept, and more accurate… if you're well trained, that is." 

Without further ado, Amelia grabbed the ball she had been holding in one hand, turned on her heel, and sent it rocketing towards Skara, who caught it squarely between both hands, cradling the ball to her chest to absorb the impact. 

Amelia dusted her hands off, then turned back to Willow with a bright smile. 

"So! You ready to get started on catching?" 

What followed was an incredibly humiliating twenty minutes of Willow trying, and mostly failing, to catch Grudgby balls thrown her way. Skara and Amelia made the level of coordination it required look unfairly easy. At the very least, they were taking it easy on Willow with their throws—if you'd asked her before, Willow would likely have said she didn't need their pity, but after witnessing Amelia's fastball throw to Skara, she was realizing it was less pity and more trying to avoid killing their replacement teammate.

When Skara started to walk over to her after yet another failed catch, Willow felt sick with dread. Her patience was fraying, she felt foolish, and the last thing she needed was the kind of passive aggressive comment she had heard a thousand times from the bard-track witch. She felt her already aching muscles grow tense as Skara approached and prepared for the worst. 

"You're doing really great for your first practice!" Skara said instead. 

Willow stared. Was this some advanced form of sarcasm that sounded completely genuine?

"I can barely catch any of these," Willow said, frowning. 

"Okay, yeah, but everyone's gotta start somewhere!" Skara insisted, undeterred. "Besides, I think I know what's wrong."

Willow's tension jumped from a five to a nine as Skara reached out and grabbed her hands without warning, but the other girl somehow failed to notice. She held Willow's hands out in a loose approximation of a catching position. 

"So, what you're doing here—it's a natural instinct, really—is you're trying to catch the ball with your fingertips. It makes sense with most moving objects, you wanna get a grip on it as soon as you can, but a Grudgby ball is usually moving too fast for that to be effective. What you wanna do is…" Skara gently tilted Willow's hands, oblivious to her discomfort, until her palms almost formed a bowl. She then plunked the Grudgby ball down in between Willow's two hands, before _finally_ taking a step back. "You wanna catch it with your palms, then lock your fingers around it. This way it can't go anywhere, and you're less likely to break a finger, too." 

The Grudgby ball blinked at Willow as she tried to figure out how she could even respond to that. Did this girl just have no concept of personal space?

"Right. Thanks." 

Despite her reservations regarding Skara's teaching methods, catching did become less of a nightmare after that. When Willow was able to catch a speeding fastball from Skara and keep it locked to her chest despite the stinging in her palms, the surge of pride she felt was undeniable. Her teammates, however, seemed even more excited than Willow was. Skara pumped a fist in the air when she saw that Willow had successfully caught her throw, and Gus's section of the bleachers burst out cheering. Even Amelia was smiling as she called it quits on catching practice. The only one with no reaction was Boscha, who sat off to the side, staring at Willow with an unreadable expression.

After that, it was time for Willow to practice passing, instead of just receiving. 

"This will probably take a bit more practice, so don't worry if it seems frustrating at first. Let's start with some short passes." 

"Short" passes apparently constituted of anything less than half the length of the Grudgby field, which seemed a bit misleading to Willow. Amelia and Skara mostly stayed closer to her, though, as they passed the ball between the three of them. It was a mismatched exercise, but Skara's and Amelia's expertise was enough to make up for Willow's lack thereof. In the frequent case that she should overshoot or have a throw go slightly wide, they were usually able to intercept it before it was lost. 

By the end of the allotted twenty minutes, Skara was hunched over, breathing hard, after having to make a spectacular leap to catch one of Willow's wide shots, and Willow was shocked to find that she was smiling. 

The burn in her arms was the satisfying kind that came from a good workout, and throwing the Grudgby ball around, watching Amelia and Skara perform ever more impressive feats of athleticism to make her passes… it had been _fun_. 

She hadn't even thought of Boscha the entire time. 

"Okay…" Amelia said between gulps from her water bottle. "Damn, you're really giving us a workout, Park. One more thing." 

"Okay?" Willow was starting to feel a little exhausted, but no way was she going to show weakness in front of them. "What's next?" 

"Long passes," Skara said as she joined Willow, handing her a Grudgby ball. 

She made grabby hands towards Amelia's half drained water bottle; Amelia rolled her eyes but handed it over regardless. 

"We're not gonna have anyone on the receiving end, because frankly, the chances of a new player making a long pass are next to none. This is just to see where you're at," Amelia explained, slipping once more into what Willow was starting to think of as Grudgby Mode.

"So, I'm passing to… no one?" Willow said hesitantly.

"Yup!" Skara chirped. "Just toss this sucker as hard as you can that way," she said, pointing to the goal post at the far end of the Grudgby field. 

"Alright." 

Willow tested the weight of the Grudgby ball in her hands, hefting it a few times. During passing practice, she had been trying to get it to Skara or Amelia, with limited success. But if all she had to do was throw it as hard as she could... 

Willow turned on her heel, imitating the wind-up of Amelia's overhand throw. She held the ball up to her shoulder, imagined Boscha's dumb, sneering face as she told her friends that Willow probably wouldn't even show up, and whipped the ball with all the repressed frustration that only more than eight years of bullying could invoke. 

The Grudgby ball was reduced to a blur in the sky as it soared up and over the opposing goal with incredible velocity, hanging in the air for several seconds before its arc concluded. It landed with a faintly audible crash somewhere in the woods behind the Grudgby pitch, long gone. 

Gus and his illusions erupted into raucous cheering, holding up signs that spelled out "WILLOW" in green letters, and Willow pumped her fist in triumph. She couldn't help but break into a huge grin.

"Holy shit," Skara whispered to Amelia. "I'm starting to think the only reason she didn't kick our asses is that she's too nice for that?" Skara had only thought to ask Willow to join their team because of her not half-bad performance in their one unofficial Grudgby match. This was… Skara wasn't sure if 'impressive' or 'terrifying' was more apt. 

_'Still, with an arm like that, Willow could be a serious asset to the team.'_

"Okay, maybe 'as hard as you can' is a bit much, hot damn," Skara said. Amelia just whistled, still looking in the direction the ball had disappeared. "If you're up for some extracurricular accuracy training, you could be a real force to be reckoned with by the time our next game happens."

Willow glowed with pride. She would count that as a win for her personal training regimen. Out of curiosity, she happened to look to the side of the Grudgby pitch, where Boscha was standing.

Boscha, like Amelia, was still looking in the direction where Willow's Grudgby ball had disappeared. Unlike Amelia, Boscha's jaw had dropped and she was clearly gaping at the result of Willow's throw. Upon noticing Willow's eyes on her, she shut her mouth so quickly Willow was surprised she couldn't hear the click from where she stood, and glared indignantly in her direction.

"You know you're supposed to keep the ball _inside_ the court, right?" she hollered from across the pitch. 

Willow rolled her eyes. Boscha could yell and bluster all she wanted, Willow had seen the look on her face and she wasn't gonna forget it anytime soon. 

_'How's that for half a witch, Boscha?'  
_

__

[thatonedorkthatdraws](https://instagram.com/thatonedorkthatdraws?igshid=hupt7iurletz)

  
"Careful, captain, I'm starting to feel singled out!" Willow called back. In truth, there was no way she'd call off the arrangement for something as minor as Boscha being unable to give an honest compliment… but it was fun to make her sweat over the possibility. "Besides, you didn't seem too concerned with staying in bounds when you were exploding trees during our last match!" 

Satisfied that she had gotten the last word, Willow turned back to Skara and Amelia. 

"So… is that all for today?" she asked. 

While she wasn't completely exhausted, Willow could definitely say she was looking forward to flopping down on her bed when she got home, preferably after a nice shower. 

"Well, it was gonna be, but after that demonstration I've gotta see if you can score." Amelia sounded more excited than Willow had ever heard her. She grabbed another Grudgby ball from a rack and started walking towards the center of the court. "Come on!" she called over her shoulder, not looking back to see if they were following. 

Skara looked at Willow and shrugged. 

"Promise you can go home after this. Amelia just gets excited about new recruits, especially ones that look this good." 

"Alright," Amelia said impatiently when they joined her in the center of the court. She held the ball out to Willow. "I want you to try and score on either one of these goals, without moving from the spot." 

Willow stared skeptically at the distant goal. Sure, she had tossed the last one way farther, but the goal wasn't exactly a huge target.

"Don't worry, I won't let Mel make you keep trying," Skara said with a conspiratorial wink. "Hit or miss, we all get to go home after this." 

"Hey, I wasn't gonna do that," Amelia said, pouting. "I just wanna see what she's got!" 

Willow sized up the goal. She didn't love her chances of making the shot just by throwing it… but who said that's what she had to do? 

Willow held a finger up in the air and called on the elemental force she knew like the back of her hand. She spun a neat circle, forming a glowing green loop around her that flashed as she completed it, then threw the ball straight up into the air as hard as she could. 

As she threw the ball, a massive vine erupted from the ground just behind Willow, growing so fast she could feel a rush of wind on the back of her neck. It moved in perfect accordance to her will, rearing back and smacking the Grudgby ball just at the peak of its arc. The ball was sent rocketing right through the aperture of the away team goal—a perfect score! 

"Holy shit, Park's got moves!" 

Willow grinned—this time it was Skara's turn to whistle, a theatrical two-toned whistle that Willow vaguely recognized from old crystal ball programs. 

Amelia, however, rubbed the back of her head sheepishly.

"Sorry, I should've been more specific. I meant without magic." 

Willow frowned. That hadn't been an easy shot to make, and it felt like Amelia was trying to discount it for no reason. 

"Why wouldn't I be able to use magic? Isn't the use of magic, like, the whole point of Grudgby?" she asked somewhat defensively. 

"Sorry, that's not what she meant," Skara cut in. "Your shot was totally impressive! But not every shot or pass can have some big magical flourish." She tossed a Grugby ball from one hand to another as she walked over to the center of the pitch. "In the heat of the moment, there might not always be time for that, and then you've just gotta trust your hands."

With those final words Skara casually tossed her own Grudgby ball over her shoulder. It sailed in a perfect arc, right through the triangular opening of the goal behind her. Skara didn't even turn around. 

Willow's jaw dropped.

_'Maybe this was a bad idea. There’s no way I'll be that good by next week.'_

When Skara did turn around, though, she took one look at Willow's dumbstruck face and broke into the broadest grin Willow had seen from her all day—scratch that, probably ever.

"Oh my Titan, did I actually get it?" 

Amelia nodded at her with a grin. 

"Not bad, Harper." 

Skara pumped her fist into the air and let out an excited cheer that was completely unlike anything Willow would have expected from her, leading Willow to seriously reassess what she had just witnessed here.

"You... never managed to do that before?" she asked Skara once she had calmed down. 

Skara shook her head.

"Not never, but it's definitely not a consistent trick. I can hit that like, maybe one out of every five tries?"

Willow exhaled in relief.

"Oh, thank the Titan. I just saw my life flash before my eyes trying to calculate how many hours of training it would take me to manage that before next week."

Both Amelia and Skara snorted at that. Willow tensed for a moment before she realized with some wonder that they were… laughing at her joke. Not at her. 

"Don't worry," Amelia said. Willow wasn't sure if the girl was ignoring her momentary freeze, or if she just hadn't noticed. "That kind of trick shot is totally unnecessary in an actual Grudgby game. She just wanted to wow you."

Willow looked at them dubiously. Skara wanting to impress her was… hard to imagine.

"Well, in my defense, she hadn't seen me play up close yet. And I can't let Miss Thorn Vault over here think she's the only one with impressive moves." Skara winked. Her voice was void of any maliciousness. "Anyways, we did promise we would only make you try once. Plus, I don't know about you, but I could really use a shower." 

"Dibs on the hot shower—oh, and good practice, Willow!" Amelia said, wiping sweat from her face with the front of her jersey. 

To her surprise, Willow could feel a smile spread across her face.

Despite the frustrating parts, the training had been a pretty motivating experience, overall. Boscha had been—well, still Boscha, but in a far more manageable form, and Skara and Amelia had been genuinely supportive, even when Willow messed up. It was _weird,_ but she could honestly say today had been fun.

"The game is next week Friday, right? That should be enough time to get me in shape if we can squeeze some more training in here and there."

"Yes!" Amelia beamed at her. "How many more training sessions would you be down for? We could match up our schedules in plants tomorrow!"

Willow nodded.

"Sure! See you in class."

She lifted her hand to wave, then split up from the group to leave the Grudgby field in the direction of the bleachers.

"Willow, that was amazing! You were so good!"

Gus waved his flags at his best friend excitedly when she walked up to him.

"It _felt_ amazing, too." Willow grinned. "Did you see Boscha's face when I blasted that ball off the field? I've never seen her that dumbstruck before."

Gus laughed.

"Yeah, you really showed her." 

He lifted his hand for a high five, and she hit her palm against his. It was strange how they hadn't even known the gesture a couple of months ago, and now it was the most daily, common thing in the world. Even with Luz a whole realm away, a part of her remained right here with them.

"She was acting so strange all training. I was waiting for her to put me down for my lacking skills the entire time, but... nothing. When she wasn't dumbstruck she mostly just ignored me. Not that I'm complaining, it’s a nice change of pace."

Then, Willow suddenly burst out laughing.

"Huh? What is it?"

Gus looked at her in confusion.

"I think I just figured out why she was acting so weird." Willow snorted. "You know that thing five year olds are always told by their parents, 'if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all'?"

"No way… you think she’s so bad at being decent that she has to resort to preschool strategies?" Gus asked, amazed. "That's sad, even for Boscha." 

"Seriously, I'm pretty sure that was it," Willow insisted. "She just flapped her mouth like a fish before walking away—Boscha _never_ walks away without the last word!"

"So, Boscha's bad attitude aside, did the other girls treat you okay?"

Gus looked at Willow in concern. It hadn't looked too bad from the bleachers (otherwise he would have interfered), but they'd been too far away for him to hear what they were saying quite a few times.

"Yeah." Willow almost added _'it was actually pretty fun!'_ before she caught herself. Titan, what was she thinking? _'Pull yourself together, Willow,'_ she chided herself. 

These were still the same girls that had picked on her for years. Just because they'd tossed a ball around for an hour, they weren't suddenly friends.

Thorns, she still wasn't even sure she trusted this whole situation.

Were a couple of small compliments and a bit of encouragement suddenly enough to win her over? After everything that had happened? 

Was she really this stupid?

Willow took a deep breath and clenched her fists.

"Skara doesn't know what personal space is, but I guess it could've gone worse."

Gus gave her a consoling smile.

"It's only for a bit. And if it gets too bad, you can always call it off, right?"

Willow smiled weakly.

"Huh. Yeah, I guess that makes me feel a bit better."

She had to make sure she'd never get this lost in the heat of the moment again.

She was playing with open fire, and if she didn't watch out, she'd get terribly burnt.

When Skara got outside after showering at school, changed and hair magically dried, Boscha was sitting on the bleachers, her gaze fixed on some faraway point in the forest.

Skara sighed and sat down next to her.

She wondered if her best friend had waited on her to walk home together, or if she'd just been so lost in thought she hadn't noticed how much time had passed.

The usual complaint about Skara’s showers taking too long was noticeably absent... but they'd barely spoken at all that day, so it really wasn't too surprising.

"You still giving me the silent treatment, or can we actually do a proper review on Willow's skills right now?"

As much as Boscha got on Skara's nerves lately, Skara trusted her judgement when it came to Grudgby.

Boscha was the team captain for a reason, after all.

"Well, if you need my advice that much, I guess I might help you," Boscha scoffed.

 _'Alright, drama queen. You're still pissed off. I get it.'_ Skara sighed, but she was determined to not let that irritate her too much. They actually needed to talk about Willow, no matter how salty Boscha was over all this. "Considering this was her first practice, she was pretty good, wasn't she?"

Boscha rolled her eyes.

"Oh yeah, that someone has to get basic catching and passing shown to them is a _really_ promising start," she said sarcastically.

Skara stared at her blankly, a little lost for words. She'd expected Boscha to be super harsh—she was that way to everyone, including herself—but this was ridiculous. 

It wasn't like Boscha had always been a perfect player. You weren't _born_ that way.

 _"Everyone_ starts off that way. You did, too! Your first Grudgby training ended with Amity's fastball smacking you straight in the face, remember?"

Skara nudged Boscha gently, but the attempt at lightening the mood instead resulted in one of the most deadly glares Boscha had ever shown Skara.

"Exactly! Amity didn't go easy on me!" Boscha snapped through gritted teeth. "Amity never went easy on _anyone_ before that human girl showed up and turned her brain to mush."

Skara sighed. Maybe she should've known better. Amity was still a pretty touchy subject, especially when Boscha was in a bad mood.

"So what if we went a bit easy on her?" Skara said, returning to the original topic of conversation before Boscha could derail it any further. "Our goal is to help her improve as much as we can before next week, not to drive her off the team in the first training!"

"Well, you're not gonna do that by treating her like a toddler!" Boscha snapped back.

Skara let out an exasperated groan.

"That's not what we were doing! Besides, as much as you're discrediting her right now, you seemed pretty impressed a couple times."

"You're delusional."

 _'What I_ **am** _is just about done with this conversation,'_ Skara thought, narrowing her eyes as she got up. "Can you not be an ass for five seconds and actually talk to me about this? I don't care how much you dislike Willow. Feel free to keep doing that as much as you fucking want. But I need an objective assessment of her skills from you. You know, potential strengths, areas of improvement—the stuff you’re supposed to be good at?"

And if she wasn't getting that in the next two minutes, Skara was leaving. There was no use in wasting any more time on this.

"My _'objective assessment',"_ Boscha snarled, "is that she's not going to be good enough to play by next week. Just because that's not what you want to hear doesn't mean it's not how I actually see it."

Skara glared at her. With Boscha sitting and her standing, she was the taller one for once.

"Why are you acting like this? If she can shape herself up some more before the game, we actually stand a chance of winning! Aren't you happy you didn't mess up our chances entirely?" This was going nowhere. Apparently Boscha was so pissed over needing Willow’s help that she wouldn’t even do her job as team Captain. _'Speaking of toddlers, you're acting like a child that just got her favorite toy taken from her.'_

"How hard is it to grasp that I think she's just not cut out for this?! And a week of training isn't enough considering the level she's at right now! It's not like she can beat the other team with push-ups," Boscha scoffed. "The Epiderm team has been working together for years. They'll eat her alive."

Skara crossed her arms.

"We'll see about that."

  
  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First of all! Massive, massive thank you to [tiredandjaded](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallingVersatile/pseuds/tiredandjaded), who aside from being an incredible beta, has been kind of a co-author for this chapter. She wrote a large portion of the Grudgby scene that I was really struggling with, and absolutely knocked it out of the park. Couldn’t ask for a better beta _or_ a better friend.  
> Also, a huge thank you to everyone who commented on the last chapter! I was so nervous and insecure about that one, so that it resonated with so many of you guys so well made me really, really happy.  
> As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter, feedback is super, super appreciated! I always read all comments and a lot of them make me smile really widely and motivate me a lot!  
> Even if I’m kinda bad at answering them, please know I see and read all of them!  
> Someone made [this really cute fanart for chapter nine](https://www.instagram.com/p/CIhIi-UJgWg/?igshid=ud6bon5yn82l), go check it out!  
> Also, in case anyone is wondering, my new pfp was done by the wonderful [grinux](https://grinux.tumblr.com/), go check out her art!
> 
> Now for something less pleasant but necessary: from now on, for every _I’m upset the next chapter isn’t out yet_ -comment I get, no matter how politely worded you think it is, I’m gonna put off posting the chapter for a day after I finish it.  
> Seriously, those stress me the hell out. My chapters are long and therefore take a while to write, and also I’m allowed to take time off of writing. That’s something I already struggle with a ton if it’s just me putting pressure on myself, and people adding to that certainly doesn’t help.  
> For the record: putting an “I don’t mean to make you feel stressed” in front of your “it’s been X weeks since you updated” is _still_ gonna stress me out.  
> These comments are not going to actually make me update faster, but they _will_ make me feel bad.  
> I deeply appreciate the wonderful feedback I get from so many of you, but the few people trying to nag me or guilt trip me into updating do a number on my writing motivation and my mental health, and I’d appreciate if you could just... not do that.  
> Thank you.  
> [Since I was asked this before, “I can’t wait for the next chapter” is fine for me personally, [ here’s the ask I answered about that in case anyone is curious ](https://the-lone-witch-and-secret-room.tumblr.com/post/637952202971004928/do-you-mind-if-i-ask-for-help-on-not)]
> 
> Now, since I don’t want to end this on a super sad note: the next update is going to be out two weeks from now, maybe a bit earlier, and for once that’s something I can actually guarantee 😉


	13. Little By Little

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Alright, first things first!  
> 1\. There is a story series for [Locked Out side stories](https://archiveofourown.org/series/2149602) now! This is for a bunch of tiny ideas (most of them will be oneshots) that belong in the same universe as Locked Out but don’t go into the main story—some taking place a bit further back in time, some during the summer I skipped over, some may also be scenes that take place during the story but don’t actually fit into a chapter! All of them are canon to the Locked Out universe, and, while not absolutely necessary to read to understand the story, may help improve the experience! Also it may help you be less bored while you wait for the next update😉  
> New ones will be added whenever I have time/inspiration hits, I don’t have a schedule for them.  
> 2\. I added art to the last chapter! Go look!  
> 3\. This is... another long chapter. Is anyone still surprised by how? _Someone save me the characters just won’t shut up_ 🤣
> 
> CONTENT WARNING  
> The final scene in this chapter contains a depiction of a character going through a depressive episode, and while there is no mention of self harm or suicidal thoughts, it does show a character in a bleak, hopeless mindset that could be disturbing to some who have been in similar positions.  
> The scene is separated from the others with a horizontal line, and is summarized in the ending Author's Note for anyone who wishes to skip it without missing the general contents. If this sounds like something that could put you in a negative mental space, please, take care of yourself and put your health first. The rest of the story will still be there for you.

School on Earth was blessedly uneventful that day, at least from a Ben standpoint. None of the teachers said a word about their early dismissal the day before, and everything was just about normal... with the exception of the whispers that had followed Luz and Amity around school.

When, upon entering the school that morning, a group of girls standing by the lockers had turned to stare at them, Luz expected the worst. The mean, nasty comments would be back in force, except this time Amity would be a target as well. 

_‘I wish she hadn’t put a target on her back for me.’_

It wasn’t that Amity couldn’t handle herself. She absolutely could. But there was still the fact that she was the new kid in a strange new school, in a strange new world.

Luz knew Amity wasn’t as invincible as she liked to present herself. Everyone had vulnerabilities, and Amity was no exception. Luz just hoped no one would find the right buttons to push...

Of course, Amity had immediately realized something was off—she knew Luz’s body language well enough by now, it seemed, and had gently put an arm around her waist to comfort her as the two walked in while staring right back at the group of girls.

The girls erupted into a flurry of whispers and grins, one playfully punching the shoulder of another until the second girl begrudgingly pulled a wrinkled five dollar bill out of her pocket and handed it over.

As someone who was a frequent topic of discussion among the student body, Luz had learned to read the tone, if not the exact contents, of the things people whispered behind her back. And to her great surprise, it seemed that people were neither scornful, nor mocking, but instead... curious.

“See? I told you she has a girlfriend!”

Upon overhearing that particularly excited whisper, Luz almost walked into a wall—which was an impressive feat, given that she was right in the middle of the hallway. 

She hadn’t been sure what to expect when her classmate opened her mouth, but it sure as hell wasn’t _that._

“And she’s cute, too! Whoa.”

Luz and Amity’s reactions—looking at one another, blushing bright red, and then looking away quickly, all while Amity’s arm was still wrapped around her waist—had done little to quell the rumor, and it quickly spread throughout the school, popping up at every turn. 

“I hear she beat Ben up and got away with it,” in an awed whisper from one member of the football team to another, when the teacher had her back turned in Geometry. 

“Imagine having a partner that picks fights for you! That’s so romantic! Like something straight out of a movie,” overheard in the lunchroom, followed by a dreamy sigh. “My boyfriend would never do that for me.”

“You should have seen them yesterday. They were constantly hugging, touching hands and everything. In the middle of the school hallway! _Who does that?”_

By the time they had their English class together, people had foregone whispers and were just talking about it outright—seriously, Luz and Amity were _two desks away_ from this girl, and she was talking about it _on her phone._

“Can you believe Noceda has a girlfriend before you do?” one of Ben’s friends had snickered when the two of them walked into class a minute before the bell. 

Luz held her breath, expecting some harsh recrimination, but to her surprise, Ben had just glared at his friend, ignoring Luz and Amity entirely.

“Shut up.”

It wasn’t like people were suddenly friendlier to Luz, or even more willing to talk to her directly... but it was still vastly different than the kind of attention she was used to receiving.

People seemed fascinated by speculating how she and Amity had, in their minds, ended up together. As results from standing up to a longtime bully went, it definitely wasn’t what Luz would have anticipated… but she would certainly take it over outright scorn.

After a long day of Amity struggling through her classes—at least chemistry went alright this time, that was a start—they took the bus home.

The entire way home, as they sat next to each other on the bus and chatted about the various movies and shows Luz still wanted to introduce Amity to, Luz’s mind kept drifting back to the school rumors.

This was the second time this week someone had mistaken them for a couple... but this was different from some random stranger making a comment at the cinema.

They’d see the people from school again the next day, and then after the weekend, and Luz knew how the school rumor mill went—sometimes, a rumor like this would die down… other times, it would become an obnoxious in-joke the grade played on a helpless victim for months on end.

 _‘Should I talk to Amity about this?’_ Luz wondered, glancing over at her friend. _‘What am I even supposed to say, though? “Haha, isn’t it funny that everyone thinks we’re dating”?’_

And even if she could think of a way to start it, Luz wasn’t sure what she was even expecting out of that conversation. Maybe she just wanted to reassure herself that the rumors wouldn’t make things awkward between them?

Then again, acknowledging the rumors could possibly make it even more awkward than just ignoring them did...

Amity gently poked her arm, interrupting Luz’s thoughts.

“I think the next one is our stop.”

“Oh, whoops. You’re right.” Luz shook her head and slung her bag over her shoulder as she got up again. “I’m sorry, I wasn’t really listening for a bit. I’m... kinda distracted.”

“Yeah, I noticed.” Amity put a hand on Luz’s shoulder. “I’m not going to force you, but... if you ever _do_ want to talk about yesterday, or your mom, or _anything,_ really, I’m here to listen, okay?”

Luz smiled, genuine gratitude blooming in her heart in spite of the fact that she knew she wouldn’t be taking Amity up on her offer.

“I know. Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

Gus’s nerves remained tightly wound even after he got home, letting himself in the ornate front door and calling out a greeting to his dad. 

Like he always did after school, he got a snack, a glass of water, and made his way up to his room. He took his homework out, tossed his bag down in the corner, and went to get started on his assignments for the day… but after a few minutes of false starts, he gave up, leaning back in his chair and letting out a tense sigh.

Grudgby training had been stressful to watch. He had tried to cover it up by cheering Willow on, and while his excitement for her had been genuine, it had been underscored by worry for his friend constantly putting him on edge.

Gus understood why she would take a risk to show off to the Grudgby team. Presenting her skills in a way to make Boscha and her crew respect her—if not as a person, then at least for her terrifying magical potential—was in theory a good way to permanently dissuade any harassment.

But as much as he’d tried to cheer her up earlier... the idea of Willow spending so much time with the same people who had tormented her for years made his skin crawl. He couldn’t have missed how tense she had been the entire way back to Bonesborough...

When Gus’ scroll pinged with a message from Amity suggesting a group call with Willow, he was more than thankful for the distraction.

Besides, while they’d sent the occasional message back and forth, it had been _far_ too long since he’d actually gotten to see Luz and Amity. He set his scroll down flat on his desk, and with a few taps of his thumb, navigated over to a _slightly_ off the market app that would project his screen into the air as an illusion. Two blue rectangles a few feet in diameter fizzled into existence above his desk, one showing Willow, the other blank for just a moment before it clarified into an image of his two missing friends. 

“Hey guys!”

Luz waved her hand to greet them, but right away Gus could tell it was missing some of her usual energy.

Amity lifted her hand as well, a second late and a bit more awkward, but her smile was genuine nonetheless. 

Gus noted that she sat closer to Luz than she usually did, without the embarrassed blush that most physical affection and closeness brought to her face. 

At one point during the summer, after backing out of a group hug she hadn’t felt ready for, Amity had sheepishly explained to him that surprise hugs, or even just casual, physical contact, could be a bit overwhelming to her sometimes, so it was great to see her apparently making progress on working past that.

“Ami! Luz!” 

Willow still looked pretty tired despite her hair being damp from the shower she had talked about needing all the way home, but she was smiling broadly.

Amity’s face immediately lit up when Willow called her by her old nickname, something she’d slowly grown into doing again over the summer.

“Hi! How have you guys been?” Gus asked. “Any interesting human realm things you’d like to share?” 

He tried to peer past Luz and Amity to see any interesting artifacts in the background of Luz’s room that he may not have seen before. While he of course felt bad for Amity’s situation, he really couldn’t help but be at least a little envious of the opportunity she was getting. Reading about Luz’s world in his magazines was the one thing, but he’d have given everything he had for the chance to see it with his own two eyes.

Amity chuckled. She seemed a lot more relaxed than she’d been during their last call.

“I’ve started keeping a notebook with weird human terminology,” she said, leaning down offscreen for a moment before coming back up with a thin, spiral bound notebook. “I’ll show you everything when we get back to the Isles!”

Gus squealed with excitement.

“Really?!”

She smiled at him.

“Sure.”

When Amity had first started to tag along with their little friend group, Gus hadn’t been sure what to think. 

Before the incident with Willow’s memories—one where Amity had physically _hurt_ Willow, even if she’d made up for it later—all he’d ever known her as was the girl that made his friend cry.

Willow hadn’t talked much about Amity before their reconciliation, and never about any of the good things, so when she had decided to give her ex-friend (and now ex-bully) a second chance, well, you couldn’t blame Gus for being a bit wary.

But over the course of the summer, Amity had proven time and time again how much she wanted to make it up to Willow. 

The moment that had truly tipped the scales for Gus had been, perhaps unsurprisingly, a result of yet another confrontation with Boscha. As Gus, Willow, and Amity walked down the hallways of Hexside after school one day, Boscha had "accidentally" bumped into the plant-track witch with her shoulder, continuing to walk like nothing had happened. She was alone, but apparently in a bad enough mood to want to start trouble even without her posse to back her up, because when Willow, no longer willing to take Boscha's behavior laying down, had called out angrily to her back as she walked away, Boscha whirled around, spitting venom of her own right back.

A tense standoff followed, the two witches sparking with power. As the triclops bared her fangs and made a rude gesture at Willow with her left hand, no one noticed the potion flask concealed in her right, tucked subtly by her side.

No one, that is, except for Amity.

When Boscha, utterly without windup, warning or preamble, hurled the potion straight towards Willow's face, Amity was ready. She stepped in front of her old friend in a flash, hand outstretched, and caught the potion flask in one smooth motion.

The potion flask that, unfortunately, had been uncorked. Purple liquid splashed all over Amity's face and clothes, sinking into her skin almost immediately where it landed and staining her uniform. Willow and Gus cried out as Amity stumbled, and Boscha's eyes went wide for just a moment, before she barked out a sharp laugh. “That's what you get, Blight!” she called over her shoulder as she sauntered down the hall.

Gus and Willow crowded around Amity as she tried her best to wipe the remaining purple sludge from her Abomination-track uniform. At last, Amity sighed, seeming to accept her uniform as a lost cause. She looked up at Willow and Gus, opened her mouth... and spat out an incomprehensible, garbled mess.

It turned out that the potion Boscha had brewed up was a speech reversal draught. Anything that Amity tried to say for the next... however long it worked, would be minced up, reversed, and otherwise impossible to understand. This was figured out after several increasingly frustrated attempts by Amity to say words in reverse, before having the bright idea to just get out a notebook and write it down for them.

Willow had been distraught, while Gus was more shocked than anything at Amity's seemingly instinctive act of bravery. Amity accepted her hand up off the ground, but when Willow had begun to apologize profusely, saying that she should never have been caught up in this and cursing Boscha's name, Amity just shook her head. She pulled out her notepad once more and began to write, while Willow blinked in surprise, before she turned it around to show Willow what she had written.

_None of it landed on you, right?_

After that, it was pretty safe to say that Gus had been won over.

It turned out that once she had been given an opportunity to flourish away from her group of bullies, Amity was a pretty nice person. 

She’d tutored Luz for hours on end just to help her get her abominations grades up, gone out of her way to help plan and set up the surprise birthday party they’d thrown for Willow, and she had even been willing to spend a full three hours on a practice interview Gus had needed for a school project, despite the fact that they hadn’t been especially close at that point.

The most undeniable change, though, had been how much happier Willow was to have her old friend back in her life, and for that, Gus couldn’t be more thankful.

“You’re still wearing your hair down, huh?” Willow said, smiling at Amity. “It looks cute that way.”

“I... uh, thanks.“ 

Amity rubbed the back of her neck sheepishly. 

“Right?” Luz cut in, her eyes sparkling with excitement. “She’s so pretty with her hair down! I mean, not that she’s not always pretty, _because she is,_ I just meant-” Luz’s words died in her throat before she let out a forced, awkward cough, while Amity’s face turned the color of a bard-track uniform. “I, um. I like it that way.”

Willow raised an eyebrow at the two.

 _“Can we please talk about something else?”_ Amity squeaked, her voice gone high and tinny. 

“Sure! How’s school?” Gus offered. He’d been dying to ask about that anyway, so he was happy to change the topic to that if that made Amity more comfortable. Luz hadn’t talked about _her_ school a lot when she’d been in theirs, and he was super curious to learn more about human school. Amity exhaled loudly, the tension in her body visibly decreasing a bit. “Is it very different from ours?”

Luz opened her mouth to answer, but for the second time in as many minutes, her words seemed to fail her. 

A short, awkward silence followed, then Amity squeezed Luz’s shoulder gently—she really _was_ getting better with physical affection—before answering for Luz.

“School here is _so_ weird,” she said emphatically. “They don't have an all-seeing eye, and the alarm demons make this _ringing_ sound! It’s strangely quiet, and, all in all, just seems... kind of unsafe.”

“Huh, really?” Gus reached for the nearest sheet of paper—which happened to be a sheet of homework— and began scribbling on the back. He could transcribe it into his more official notebooks later. “I can’t imagine a school like that getting a teaching license.”

“Right?!” Amity exclaimed. “But apparently that’s normal here...”

“It's so cool to have Amity here with me!” Luz cut in, apparently having recovered her voice. “I knew I was gonna miss you guys so bad when I had to go back to boring ol' human realm—and I mean, I totally still miss you and Willow a ton, but it's _way_ less boring with Amity here!"

The conversation smoothed out after that, Luz seeming to bounce back from whatever had been bothering her. Amity told Gus about a strange, clunking beast called a “Washing Machine” that spat clothes out all wet with saliva. Apparently they had to be put into an entirely separate creature before they were dry enough to use! Human technology sure was weird. 

She also proudly regaled them with the tale of subduing a toothbrush demon. When both Gus and Willow expressed their concern over encountering such a dangerous monster, Luz cut in, clearly amused, and assured them that it was just a matter of removing the batteries. 

“Demons... batter people... possess appliances?” Gus mumbled to himself as he furiously scribbled away. 

Luz snorted with laughter, but that was okay; she probably didn't understand how dangerous some of these things could be, having grown up with them as a normal part of her life.

When a lull in the conversation arrived, Willow took the opportunity to clear her throat, giving Amity a strangely knowing look.

“So, Amity... Did you ever manage to do what you went after Luz for?”

Amity’s eyes went wide with shock, but before she could respond, Luz took something out of her hair and held it into the frame. The item turned out to be a very blurry pink plastic flower, affixed to a hair clip.

“Yep! She returned the clip!”

Luz beamed at Amity before immediately returning the clip to its place in her hair.

Amity went from nervously biting her lip to glaring at the screen in a matter of a few seconds, leaving Gus more than a little bit lost.

“Willow, didn’t you say the clip didn’t actually belong to Luz?” 

Amity coughed awkwardly.

 _“Anyway..._ What have you two been up to since we left? Any new interesting shenanigans you got into without us?”

Gus was poised to launch into his rant about how awful midterms were, when he realized that was probably a topic best avoided. If there was one thing he had learned about Amity over the summer, it was that she had a complicated relationship with school.

The Emperor’s Coven was about as high as one could aim, and while Amity was incredibly proud of her academic performance—with good reason—all those aced exams and flawless magical demonstrations came with a massive amount of pressure. One perfect score demanded another, or she would be letting down a standard she herself had set. Gus figured the last thing Amity needed right now was a reminder that Hexside academic life was moving on without her, so instead of talking directly about classes, he pivoted to something else.

“Sooo, guess what? Our very own Willow Park is now a Grudgby player.”

Amity’s face immediately lit up.

“Really? That's great! I told you, Willow, you'd be great on the team! What made you decide to finally try out?”

After their game against Boscha and the others, Amity had spent half the summer animatedly trying to convince Willow to attend tryouts for the Bonesborough youth team. She’d argued that Willow had been _incredible_ for her first game, saying that she was a natural and that with a little training, she could be a force to be reckoned with.

Willow had been nervous about the whole idea, but Gus knew there _had been_ one or two times she’d almost caved. Those words meant a lot coming from a former Grudgby captain, after all.

“Okay, okay, _maybe_ you had a point about me having a ‘gift’ or whatever,” Willow replied. She rolled her eyes, but it did nothing to conceal the satisfaction in her voice. “And I didn’t ‘try out’ technically. Hexside’s team is down two members, and the others practically begged for my help. It was... pretty surreal, honestly.”

Amity’s smile faltered.

“Wait, you joined _the school team?”_ Amity looked at her childhood best friend, her brows drawn together in concern. “Willow, are you sure this is a good idea?”

“No, I’m not,” Willow admitted. “I know I’m playing with fire here, and that I have to be careful. But I’m hoping that, if during the three weeks I’m playing replacement, I can’t make them respect me, I can at least make them, y’know, terrified of my magic?”

Luz was, predictably, thrilled.

Her solution to this problem had been ‘Grudgby ball to Boscha’s face’ the first time around, too, after all.

“Heck yeah! That’s my girl!”

Amity, however, was less enthusiastic.

“Luz, can you not...” Amity said with a frown. Her voice was filled with concern. “Willow, I don’t like this. I don’t like this at all. It’s not that I don’t get your reasons for wanting to do this—and of course I’ll support you whatever you choose to do—but, well... I was forced to hang out with those people for half my life. I don’t want you to have to do the same, especially not considering how they treat you.”

Willow smiled back at the screen, kind, tired eyes filled with nothing but sheer determination.

“It’s sweet of you to worry. I appreciate that. I’m not sure if that helps make you less concerned, but I struck a deal with the others before agreeing to any of this—if one of them tries to pick on me, pressure me, or talk down to me even once, I’ll quit the team on the spot, championship be damned. I won’t let this turn into just another opportunity for them to pick on me.” Then, Willow’s smile turned just the slightest bit cheeky, and she winked at Amity. “Besides, this entire thing was kind of your idea. You kept encouraging me to join a team, after all! And you were the one that said Boscha only speaks in Grudgby terms.”

“Yeah, but I was also the one that told Luz the match wasn’t a good idea!” Amity protested. “Just... please be careful, okay? I’d hate to see you hurt.”

“Don’t worry, Ami,” Willow said gently, giving her friend a reassuring smile. “I can handle myself. Besides, it’s only temporary! And, like I said: if this goes awry, I’m quitting the team early. No second chances. I’m done letting those girls walk all over my confidence.”

Luz pumped her fist into the air.

“Hell yeah!” She beamed at Willow. “I’m so proud of you.”

Willow chuckled, a light blush dusting her cheeks.

“Awww, Luz,” she said, waving her hand dismissively, but Luz was not to be dissuaded.

“No, I mean it!” she insisted, and Gus saw her leaning nearly out of her seat, her face growing larger in the projection. “You’re strong and brave and amazing and the whole world is gonna see it!”

Willow shook her head.

“What do I need the whole world for as long as I have you guys?” Then, she cracked a smile. “I shut Boscha up earlier, though, so that was a plus.”

That got even Amity gaping.

“No way! What happened?”

“Willow had her first training earlier, and she was totally on fire!” Gus explained. 

That was a thing humans said, right? And something that didn’t literally require someone to be set on fire? Judging by the lack of alarm on Luz’s face, Gus was pretty sure he had gotten it right. Human colloquialisms were so fun to use!

“They asked me to throw the ball as hard as I could, to test my strength or something. I launched the thing all the way into the woods from the middle of the field,” Willow said proudly. “Boscha was gaping like a fish. Greatest thing I’ve ever seen.”

“God, I can’t _believe_ we missed that,” Luz groaned, her gaze turning gloomy for a moment before she bounced back to raw excitement. “You’ll just have to take a picture next time you show her up, yeah?”

Willow snorted.

“Never change, Luz.”

Luz shook her head and clicked her tongue, poorly pretending to chide Willow.

“Tsk-tsk. You can’t say that, Willow! Character development is like, half the fun of a story!”

Amity nudged her gently as they all broke into a round of laughter. 

Gus smiled.

That was Luz all over, alright.

_‘Titan, I miss her.’_

As the laughter subsided, a look of worry once more overtook Amity's face, her brow furrowed in concern.

“Willow, if you’re sure about this, can I... at least give you some training tips?”

Willow beamed.

“I’d love that.”

For the next twenty minutes, that was exactly what they did.

Luz still didn’t know a whole lot about Grudgby, except for the very basic rules (and even those seemed pretty wishy-washy to her), so she would admit, she mostly tuned out whatever Amity was talking about in favor of observing the way her golden eyes sparkled with excitement. Enthused Amity was cute. 

Not that regular Amity wasn’t cute—under any and all circumstances, Amity was _always_ cute—but there was just something about the way her voice sounded... like she was putting every ounce of positive reinforcement she could muster behind every word, just to make Willow feel more confident about the task she’d picked out for herself.

Heck, Amity didn’t even like the idea of Willow putting herself on the line like that! But here she was, using her knowledge, her talent, her experience with the sport, to make sure Willow would be safe, and Luz was so in love she thought her heart might burst.

Willow took it all in, nodding and asking occasional follow-up questions for clarification, while Gus took notes on everything Amity was saying, so he and Willow could go over it again later.

Eventually, their chatter was interrupted by the door to Willow’s room opening slightly.

Some background noises were followed by Willow turning around to shout “coming, dad!” towards the door. “Sorry guys, I have to go now. My aunt dropped by for a visit, I should probably go say hi.”

Luz nodded and waved at her.

“Okay, have fun!”

Gus sighed.

“And I should get back to my homework...”

“Talk to you guys soon, alright?” Amity said, shooting one last, fond glance at her childhood best friend.

Willow smiled back at her.

“Of course.”

“Bye guys!” Luz said enthusiastically, before first Willow, then Gus left the call, and the scroll-phone’s screen went back to being pitch black.

“That was fun!” Amity said brightly, smiling as she leaned slightly against Luz.

“Mhm.”

Her crush didn’t look up, and when Amity turned towards her, she realized Luz’s shoulders were shaking a little. It took Amity a moment to realize what was going on, and when she did, her heart dropped into her gut. 

Luz was crying.

“Hey, is-is everything okay?”

“Yeah, I just...” Luz sniffled. “I really miss them, Amity.”

Amity pulled Luz into a hug, gently rubbing her back.

“Me too, Luz,” Amity whispered.

Tears formed in her eyes when she realized just how much she meant it. For the first time in years, she had friends she actually missed, so much that it hurt to think about it... Friends who, and this was the truly crazy part, _missed her too._

“At least it’s only for a bit,” Luz mumbled, and Amity nodded.

She gave Luz another comforting squeeze before releasing her, but it seemed Luz wasn’t ready to let go—she snuggled into Amity’s side, and Amity gladly took the opportunity to wrap an arm around her crush’s shoulder. Feeling like she was keeping Luz safe, even if just from an aching heart, made Amity feel like she was doing the most important thing in the world. _‘A few weeks,’_ she quietly told herself. _‘It’s just gonna be a few more weeks, and then you’ll see them again. Everything is going to be okay.’_

Amity would be able to hug her friends again, and to properly apologize to Willow for the fourth time, and then she and Willow could finally have that sleepover Amity had promised her back when they’d been six.

She managed a small smile.

_‘Yeah. That sounds nice.’_

Luz seemed to be calming down in stages. First her breathing evened out, then some of the tension drained from her shoulders as she slowly went limp against Amity. 

A few minutes later, she had her phone in her hand, and was scrolling through the pictures of her friends she’d taken over the summer to cheer herself up.

Amity contented herself for a while with peering over Luz’s shoulder, reliving the happy memories from earlier that summer... but she couldn’t keep her mind from drifting back to the Willow situation.

Even if they would be able to get back to the Boiling Isles soon, Amity didn’t like the thought of Willow having to deal with Boscha and her posse alone in the meantime. She knew Willow could handle Boscha if it came to a fight, and the news about the agreement should have helped, but... just being around Boscha and her crew was unpleasant. Even when you weren't the target of their mockery, just being around all that... that _nastiness..._ it was hard. It started to get to you.

Amity sighed, wiping the last traces of tears from her cheeks. Just thinking about it wasn't making her feel any better, and, well, she knew what Luz would suggest.

Amity still wasn’t entirely used to being around someone that actually _wanted_ to listen when she talked about her problems... but Luz had reassured her about that dozens of times now, and maybe, slowly, she was starting to believe her. It was at least worth a shot, right?

“Luz, I’m really worried about Willow.”

Luz looked up from her phone at Amity’s words, squeezed her shoulder gently and gave an encouraging smile.

“Awww. Lemon Drop, it’s gonna be okay,” Luz said confidently. “You’ve seen what Willow can do. She’s not gonna let some stupid bullies mess with her anymore.” 

Luz could have kicked herself for the hint of jealousy that mixed with the pride in her voice, but she couldn’t help it. If she’d found a way to stick it to Ben like that... she’d have done so without hesitation. 

Dang it, no! This was no place for Luz’s own issues with standing up for herself. 

Right now, she was proud of how confident Willow had become, and trying to reassure Amity. Her own bully-related problems could wait.

She moved a bit closer to her crush and intertwined her fingers with Amity’s.

“I know she can take care of herself, it’s just...” Amity sighed, but she lifted her head and she looked directly at Luz as she continued. “I promised Willow I’d never let Boscha and her friends hurt her again. And now I’m so far away that I can’t keep that promise.”

“I’m sorry,” Luz murmured, her heart aching at the pain in Amity’s voice. If there was anything she could do to ease that pain… “I know this has to be incredibly hard for you. I worry about her a lot, too. But... it’s gonna be okay. I know it will be. I mean, the good guys always win in the end, right?” Luz smiled at Amity and wrapped an arm around her waist, but the smile Amity gave her in return seemed so very fragile. “I’m sure Willow really appreciates that you care so much.”

Amity sighed, worrying her bottom lip between her teeth, which was _not distracting or anything._

“I know she does. It’s just... I love her so much, and I messed up so badly. Willow was— _is_ —the best friend I ever had. I want to be there for her now. _I want to do right by her._ She deserves the world.”

Luz teared up a little. Initial amnesia-inducing mishaps or not, the photo shenanigans had been _so worth it._ Being able to witness Amity and Willow slowly becoming friends again was the greatest thing in the world.

“You’ve become a great friend for her, you know,” Luz said honestly.

“You really think so?” Amity looked surprised, somehow, like she hadn’t proven her loyalty over and over again this summer.

Luz nodded.

“I know so.” 

She smiled at Amity, and Amity smiled back at her, sniffling a little.

“Thank you, Luz,” Amity mumbled, pulling her friend into another hug.

“Anytime,” Luz whispered. She let Amity hold her for as long as she wanted, in no particular hurry to be let go. _‘Amity’s come so far from when I met her,’_ she thought to herself, glancing fondly at the girl sitting next to her. Luz could feel her heart swell with pride at Amity’s display of affection and worry. No trace was left of the callous, mean facade the girl had put up when Luz had met her at the beginning of summer. She’d torn it all down. _‘She’s so brave and noble and allows herself to care_ so much...’

Luz desperately tried to tear her gaze from Amity, and failed miserably. She was just so… resolute, so strong, so—so— _beautiful,_ her mind supplied, which did nothing to help Luz’s building blush. Her gaze flicked down from Amity’s kind, golden eyes, hoping to find something less distracting. Considering she ended up staring at her friend’s lips instead, Luz would have considered this effort a total loss, but somehow all other thought had shut down save for one: 

_‘Amity’s lips look so soft…’_

As if in a trance, Luz leaned forward, just a touch. Amity’s eyes went wide, and Luz was so close she could see her pupils dilate, all she had to do was lean in a bit more and— 

_‘What the hell am I doing?!’_

Luz had sworn to herself she wouldn’t make things awkward between them right now! 

And yet... she could hardly even count the amount of times she’d thought about kissing Amity in the last couple of days. On the bus to school, in the cafeteria when they took their lunches together tucked away at a hidden table that no one used, when Amity got that frowny-contemplative look on her face as she worked at a math problem.

Heck, she’d even dreamed about kissing her after falling back asleep this morning! Although she could hardly be blamed for that when sleeping in her arms, right?

Luz turned away from Amity and coughed awkwardly, her face flushing bright red. She scanned the room desperately, searching for anything she could use to avoid addressing what had just—what had _almost_ just happened, because _nothing had happened, of course_ —before her gaze finally landed on her laptop.“You know what?” Luz said, her voice coming out high and squeaky. “We should totally continue watching Little Witch Academia!” Her face felt even hotter now. Great. _‘Wow, real subtle you idiot.’_

“Sure!” If anything, Amity sounded even more off balance than Luz had. “Sure,” she repeated in a slightly more normal voice.

Luz stood up abruptly, already missing the warmth of Amity’s arms around her.

“Great! I’ll- uh- I’ll get the laptop.”

And maybe a hole would open up in the ground and swallow her whole while she was at it.

A girl could hope.

Since Amity and Luz had made sure to finish their homework for the following day previously to the call with their friends (and on account of an unfortunate lack of holes opening up in the ground), the two were able to spend the rest of the afternoon watching Little Witch Academia in peace.

It was almost seven when they finally heard the front door open.

 _‘Mom probably had to put in some extra hours for leaving early yesterday,’_ Luz thought guiltily. 

It certainly wouldn’t be the first time.

She would be lying if she said she didn’t have to think about it at all, but after a moment’s hesitation, Luz paused the episode they’d just started and went downstairs to greet her mother with a hug.

Luz still had a lot of conflicting emotions about her relationship with her mom, and the little voice in her head that kept whispering _‘push yourself harder so you can fix this faster’_ wouldn’t quite shut up, but the talk she’d had with Eda had helped quiet it, at least a bit.

 _‘It’s perfectly normal for this to be hard’_ would have sounded trite coming from anyone else, but Luz knew she could trust her mentor’s rough honesty. “Dinner is in the kitchen! I wasn’t sure when you were coming home, I would have warmed it up for you otherwise,” Luz said, as she would have on any other normal day, then quietly added, “I’m sorry you had to work overtime to make up for yesterday.”

“I’m not,” Camila answered, pulling her daughter close once more. “You needed me, and that conversation was long overdue. I’m glad we had it. Working a little longer today seems like a small price to pay.“

Luz snuggled into her mom‘s arms and didn’t let go for quite a bit.

“I love you so much.”

“I know, cariño. Te quiero también.“

Amity had given the two of them a bit of alone time before following Luz down the stairs. The level of affection they showed each other still seemed alien to her, even after almost a week of staying at the Noceda household.

Sometimes Amity caught herself trying to imagine what it would be like if her own mom acted this way around her... but she could never quite make it line up in her head.

Even the brightest of her mother’s imaginary smiles couldn’t compare to the warmth Amity felt around Camila, and every day she spent here turned even the positive memories of her own parents colder. 

They’d always been so distant. Even when they smiled at her, it wasn't with the warmth and affection that shone from Camila's eyes as Luz hugged her. It was the polite, thin-lipped smile of expectations just met... it was the smile Amity wore when she received yet another perfect exam score, a smile that said “I would expect nothing less.”

Amity couldn’t remember the last time she’d been held like that. Had… had she ever been held like that? For a parent to look at her the way Camila looked at Luz... that was something Amity couldn’t even begin to fathom.

“Hello, Ms. Noceda.” 

She waved awkwardly from where she was standing on the stairs.

Camila smiled back at her.

“Hi Amity.” She slowly let go of Luz, who gestured for Amity to come join them downstairs. “Are the two of you hungry? 

“I’m not,” Luz answered. “Long day at school. We ate pretty late.”

“Me neither,” Amity mumbled.

“Okay.” Dinner could wait, then. “How was school?” Camila asked softly, expecting the same answer her daughter had given her for years. A chipper “It was fine!” followed by no additional details.

“It was... alright, I guess,” Luz said carefully. “For real this time,” she added when her mother gave her a worried look. Luz contemplated ending there. Technically, she had already been more honest with her mom than she usually was. She could just leave it at that. But then she formed her lips into a nervous smile and took a first step towards her mom. “We could... go sit down on the couch and talk about it a little, if that’s alright with you?”

It had been years since they’d last properly talked about school.

Camila nodded.

“If you feel up for it, I’d love that.”

So they did just that. Luz sat down next to her mother on the couch and patted the cushion next to her invitingly. After some slight hesitation, Amity joined them, though she sat rather rigidly on the edge of the cushion.

“So... school!” Luz smiled nervously. She thought about where to start. “Ben actually left us alone all day. From what I’ve heard I think he got into pretty big trouble with his mom yesterday, and now he’s holding back a bit. Not sure how long that will last, but... it’s something I guess.”

“I’m so glad to hear that,” Camila said with clear relief. “I would have been very disappointed in Liana to hear otherwise.” 

Amity was... confused. When her own parents asked her how her day at school had gone—and they’d asked often—they only cared to hear about her grades. How well had she performed in her exam? Was she still the top student? How was the extra credit going?

But their _‘how was your day?’_ had never included a _‘how are you?’_

What did her friends matter to her parents? What did it matter to them if Amity had been happy at school, as long as her academic performance was up to standard?

Camila looked so strangely happy as Luz casually told her about what the cafeteria had served for lunch that day, and about how she wasn’t sure if she liked the new art teacher... all these tiny, meaningless details that Amity would never even think to mention to her parents, and yet, she suddenly found herself longing to be able to do just that.

“Oh, and everyone at school apparently thinks me and Amity are dating now?” Luz abruptly interrupted her thoughts.

Camila had to bite back a laugh. She wasn’t surprised in the slightest.

Oblivious as they both were to the other’s feelings, it was hard for anyone to look at them and not come to the conclusion that they were enamored with each other.

“Really?”

Amity nodded, blushed and looked away.

Luz bit her lip, instantly regretting her choice of conversation topics. 

_‘God, this is probably so uncomfortable for her.’_ Luz lowered her head, changing the topic to something—well, still not very easy to talk about, but harder on her than Amity, at least. 

“It’s... weird, y’know? That they’re talking behind my back but not in a negative way. Usually when people talk about me it’s just stuff I did wrong.”

Her mom reached out to put an arm around her shoulder, and Luz moved a little closer to her, leaning against her side.

“I’m so sorry, Luz. I should’ve-”

Luz shook her head.

“You’re not a mind reader, mom. You couldn’t have known.” 

They hadn’t been talking, exactly, after all. 

_‘But I'm your mom. It's my job to know,’_ Camila thought. 

Still, she had a feeling that pushing back would only lead to Luz trying to take more of the blame on herself.

Camila loved that her daughter had grown into such a kind, selfless person... she just wished it hadn't been at Luz's own expense.

A part of Luz felt like she wanted to say more— _needed_ to say more.

About how she’d overheard some of her classmates discussing why anyone would stand up for her (let alone date her) when they’d entered the packed cafeteria.

 _“I mean, I do think she got cuter over the summer, didn’t she?”_ one of the guys had asked when he’d gotten in line for food. _“And besides, who doesn’t like an underdog?”_

About how these things that sounded nice, maybe even like a compliment, hadn’t felt like one.

People didn’t actually care about Luz. They never had, and most likely never would. But now that she was part of something—friends with the new girl, maybe even in a relationship with her—people actually bothered to look her way.

She was _interesting_ —a better interesting than she was used to being, but still not the kind where anyone cared about her well-being. 

People hadn’t cared about her all the years she’d been bullied. But now that she was involved in something people considered exciting, they paid attention to her, instead of being there when she’d actually needed someone, and it was _frustrating as hell._

Luz wanted to shout from the rooftops about how this was wrong, about how messed up it was that people only started caring when it was easy or interesting to do so and not when they realized someone needed help... but she couldn’t.

Maybe it would’ve been good to talk to someone about this. Or even to _actually_ scream it from the rooftops. Who knew? Maybe that would have made her feel better!

But Luz was only slowly starting to lower the emotional walls she had built between her and her mom, and the thought of telling her all of that made Luz feel sick. Too much too fast, too different from the way she had lived for years—Luz didn’t feel ready for that yet.

_And that was okay._

_‘You have to give your relationship time to heal, okay?’_ Luz repeated her mentor’s words over and over in her head until she felt better, until she felt reassured enough about not needing to push herself any further than she felt ready to go today. _‘I actually opened up to my mom a bit. That’s a start.’_

And it didn’t have to be more than a start today. She’d see if she’d be ready to go just a little further tomorrow, and then the day after that, and so on. 

Little by little, they would start to grow closer again, until one day, hopefully, they’d be able to close the distance between them entirely.

Camila knew her daughter well enough to realize there was more to this that she was still holding back... but this was the most open Luz had been with her in years. She was obviously trying, and Camila couldn’t expect her to suddenly tell her everything after their years of struggling to communicate. 

The fact that Luz was telling her anything at all was a big step in the right direction, and Camila would have to satisfy herself with that. Slow progress was still progress, after all. 

Luz leaned against her mom, unsure of what to say—so she retreated to the default of any 21st century teenager: scrolling through her phone. Thankfully, it seemed her mom was content to leave her be. They sat there in silence for a bit, and while it was somewhat awkward... it wasn’t uncomfortable.

Suddenly, Luz’s head dropped against her mother’s shoulders for a moment. She almost let go of her phone when she abruptly sat up straight again a second later.

Her mother turned around and gently ruffled her hair.

“You seem tired, cariño.”

“Yeah, I-” Luz yawned and rubbed her temples. “I’m not feeling so well. I have a bit of a headache. I might go to sleep early today.”

That was an understatement. Her headache had only gotten worse since she’d first woken up this morning, building steadily throughout the school day, and by now it was starting to feel like someone was pounding on her skull with a sledgehammer.

Honestly, the TV earlier hadn’t helped the headache situation one bit, but Amity had enjoyed it, so Luz couldn’t bring herself to regret it.

Taking some pain killers and going to sleep early seemed like the most sensible option right now, hopefully come morning the headache would be gone.

“Oh you poor thing, have you been drinking enough? Let me get you a glass of water,” her mother offered, concern creeping into her voice.

“Aw, mom, you had a long day at work already! I’m fine getting it myself,” Luz said, more cheerful than she was feeling.

Not that that would help... Luz had tried that already, and was actually above the amount she drank most days.

“Wasn't your head hurting this morning, too?” Amity asked, nibbling at her lip in worry. 

Luz winced. 

"Yeah..." she admitted sheepishly. 

She didn't want everyone worrying over her, but... 

“Luz, why didn't you say anything?” Camila tried not to sound too admonishing, but she was worried. A headache that lasted all day was rarely just a headache. “If it's not better by tomorrow, let me know, okay cariño?”

Luz sighed.

“I was hoping it would be better by the time we got to school, honestly,” Luz said, the concern in her mom’s voice striking a note of guilt in her. Maybe she could try a bit harder to take care of herself… “But okay, mom, I will. Promise.”

“Good.”

Luz got up to get water and some pain killers, but apparently, she had slightly overestimated her capability to do so. As soon as she stood up, a wave of dizziness washed over her, the corners of her vision going dark for a moment. She was dimly aware of herself stumbling, and when her vision cleared a moment later, she was leaning against the doorframe that led to the kitchen.

“Luz, are you okay?” Amity was up and across the room in a flash, supporting Luz with an arm around her shoulders. “You don’t look so good.”

“Amity is right, I’m officially worried.” Camila’s concern only grew. Her earlier diagnosis of ‘not just a headache’ was seeming more and more accurate, and she didn’t like it one bit. “Would you please go lay down, cariño?”

Luz groaned and leaned against Amity.

“Ugh, yeah, maybe I should actually...”

The headache was seriously starting to get to her.

“Amity, would you be a dear and make sure my daughter actually gets some rest? You know her, I'm sure she'd be pulling out her laptop looking for her latest ‘fanned fiction’ once the door's closed, but looking at a screen is the last thing Luz needs right now!” Camila said, her concern mostly overshadowing the strict tone.

 _“Mommm,_ I don't need Amity to make sure I sleep,” Luz whined, dragging the first word out way too long, but her protests were half hearted at best. Really, Luz appreciated that her mom looked out for her, and the thought of Amity being upstairs with her was... nice. And on top of that, it was also convenient for doing another healing spell—no matter how bad she was feeling, Luz wasn’t sleeping before she’d cast one on Amity this time. “And it's _fanfiction,_ not ‘fanned fiction’.”

Camila chuckled.

“Right, sorry.”

Amity stood there with her mouth agape. 

She couldn’t believe it.

_...Camila trusted her to take care of Luz._

“You really want me to do that?” Amity mumbled, hoping she didn’t sound quite as wonderstruck as she thought she did.

Camila nodded.

“Really, I’m pretty sure she’s more likely to listen to you than to me,” Camila said, the look on her face bordering on mischievous. “I’m just her mom, after all. I have nothing on the cute girl she met at summer camp.”

Despite her immense blush, Amity didn’t physically disintegrate right then and there, and she decided to count that as a win.

“I won’t disappoint you, I promise,” she said with a smile.

  
  


After performing the healing glyph on Amity, Luz chugged the painkillers with some water Amity brought to her. Amity was insisting Luz should take it easy and not move around more than she absolutely had to, which was perhaps excessive, but it was more than a little adorable how seriously she was taking her mom’s instructions.

“Why don’t you get some rest now?”

Amity turned off the ceiling light, maybe a little too proud of herself for finally understanding how light switches worked.

After one last additional check that the flower hair clip was safely placed on top of her nightstand, Luz finally laid down.

“God, this is seriously gonna mess with my sleep schedule.” 

She sighed, but her pounding head refused to let her protest in a more convincing manner.

“Lu, you woke up at four this morning. Pretty sure we can consider that done,” Amity joked, only realizing a few seconds after that her brain had apparently decided she was using affectionate nicknames for Luz now without asking Amity first. 

…What was that human expression Luz had kept trying to explain to Gus? _‘In for a penny, in for a pound?’_ If Amity was going to be a lovestruck mess around Luz no matter what, it might as well be on her own terms.  
“Want me to tuck you in, beautiful?” Amity said, making a point of exaggerating her tone so _hopefully_ it came out more joking than flirtatious. 

Where Amity got the bravery for these things, she had no idea—she supposed it was just another way this past summer’s experiences had changed her.

Luz chuckled.

“Someone’s feeling bold today, huh?”

Amity winked.

“Maybe so.” Internally she was begging herself to _please just stop talking. ‘What was I thinking?’_

Luz smiled.

“And for the record, yeah, I’d love to be tucked in.”

Amity took the pillows one by one to fluff them up a bit, then reached for the blanket and gently pulled it over Luz’s shoulders, making sure it covered her whole.

Luz hadn’t been tucked in in a while. It had always felt nice when her mom did it... but coming from Amity, it was a completely different experience. Obviously. Because her mom was her _mom,_ and Amity was…

Luz had to cut that line of thinking short before she invited a repeat of the almost-kiss incident from earlier in the afternoon. Just thinking about _that_ was enough to bring a slight blush to her cheeks, which (she hoped) went unnoticed in the darkness.

“There you go,” Amity whispered when she was finally satisfied. “I’ll sit with you until you fall asleep, if that’s okay with you.”

She’d promised Camila to make sure Luz actually slept, and she intended to make good on that.

“I’d love that,” Luz whispered. Amity took the purple desk chair and put it next to the bed, letting her hands rest on top of the blanket after she sat down. “God, what did I do to deserve you?”

Amity had to be the most incredible person Luz had ever met, and she’d just taken a full fifteen minutes to ensure Luz was comfortable—and seemed perfectly content, excited even, to do so. 

Luz’s stomach was filled to the brim with butterflies. She hadn’t had a clue that being this madly in love was even possible. It was the greatest feeling in the world.

“Pretty sure I should be the one asking you that,” Amity whispered back and gave Luz a gentle peck on the forehead.

Amity had seen Camila do that yesterday, had promptly concluded it was probably some platonic human goodnight thing and decided she wanted to try it.

Luz smiled at her, and Amity was proud that she’d managed kissing her without turning into a completely flustered mess. 

Even if it wasn’t on the lips, that was still progress, right?

“Sorry for sleeping so early again, by the way,” Luz said with a dejected sigh. “I’d much rather spend more time with you, but my head is killing me.”

“No! Don’t apologize for not feeling well, you goof,” Amity said emphatically. “It’s fine. I still have some assignments from earlier this week I need to catch up on so I can hand them in tomorrow, so it’s not like I’m gonna get bored. Your mom helped me a lot yesterday, but we didn’t get entirely done... and after that, I might actually come to bed and get some extra sleep for once.” She smiled at Luz. “Besides, I’m used to spending most of my time alone. Worst case scenario, I’ll find myself a book to read or do a bit of extra studying.”

Luz hated how casually Amity said that. Every glimpse she got of what Amity’s home life must have looked like made her heart sink like a stone in her chest.

Images of young Willow and Amity came flooding back, and Luz once again felt an overwhelming desire to smash her crush’s parents through the nearest wall.

She freed an arm from under the comforter—while it was adorable that Amity took her job so seriously, Luz didn’t need to be _completely_ covered by blankets—and rested her hand over Amity’s, stroking a thumb gently over her knuckles.

“Please just come to bed when you’re done, yeah? I sleep better in your arms.”

For a second, all Amity could do was stare. As a little girl, she had dreamed of moments like this, of cozy evenings spent with someone she loved, of gentle eyes and a soft voice asking her to come to bed.

It was just like Luz, to turn Amity’s dreams to reality in the space of a second, and not even realize what she had done. 

Finally, Amity found her voice. 

“Of course, Luz,” she murmured. “Wouldn’t miss it for the world.” 

“Good.” Luz yawned and gave Amity’s hand a gentle squeeze. _‘I’ll make sure you never ever feel so alone again.’_

* * *

All Emira wanted was to go back to sleep. 

It was barely even dark yet, but she wanted nothing more than to pull the blanket over her head and knock herself out with another spell.

She’d barely gotten anything done today. 

She’d showered and eaten—that had to be worth _something,_ right?—but accomplished next to nothing beyond that.

The twins still didn’t feel ready to face school again. Eda had said that that was fine and that they could skip for as long as they wanted, but that also meant they hadn’t talked to the troublemakers yet and, all in all, not contributed enough to the portal for Emira to feel like she was actually helping.

They were making progress, yeah, but it was slow progress, and with every passing day, the reality of Amity’s absence dawned on her more. Every day Amity was gone was a day of school she’d have to catch up on, a day she didn’t get to spend practicing her magic or taking a walk through the park or taking Luz out to her favorite bakery... and with Amity so far away, Emira felt like there was nothing she could do to properly make it up to her after what happened. After what Emira had done. 

_‘At least Ed is doing better.’_

Emira glanced over to where her brother and Eda were standing in the kitchen.

Edric was laughing. He had batter all over what was maybe the silliest apron Emira had ever seen, was biting into something that looked almost as burnt as it looked disfigured, and he looked happier than Emira had seen him in years.

Seeing Edric so happy was a welcome relief. Just a couple of nights ago, she’d been scared she’d never hear him laugh again.

Eda had kept on “teaching” Edric how to cook every now and again. A word Emira used with extreme skepticism because as it turned out, Eda was only passable at cooking herself, and even worse at explaining how it worked to others... but they were having fun, and there was something about that that made Emira’s heart ache.

Why was it that a woman they barely knew had the ability to help Edric this effectively when the person that should know Edric better than anyone else couldn’t?

_‘I’m the most useless sister in the entire world...’_

And not just to Edric, either.

The memory of Amity sobbing brokenly after Emira carried out their ‘plan’ echoed in the back of her mind, as it had so many times in the last few days. Remembering that night made Emira feel so ashamed she wanted to cry.

...but she couldn’t even do that.

The numbness in her chest had spread through her entire body, keeping her chained to the couch almost as much as the burnout had. She could have moved, but she didn’t have the strength to.

Emira felt like a million broken pieces scattered all over the floor. Unable to put herself back together, unable to even get up because everything was just _too much._

“I can’t believe you really got away with that! That’s incredible!” 

To Emira, Edric’s enthusiastic exclamation at whatever story Eda had told him might as well have been a whole world away.

Eda chuckled.

“Well, I’ve lived long enough to have a couple good tricks up my sleeve. But enough about _my_ stories. You still owe me the ending to the one about the ghost in the watchtower from yesterday.”

“Oh, right! I totally forgot.”

As Edric launched into yet another enthusiastic retelling of a story Emira had experienced and told what felt like a million times over, she pulled the blanket over her head.

Her heart was a stone in her chest that pressed heavily onto her lungs and stole her breath away. 

Emira just wanted to sleep. When she was asleep, she didn’t have to think, didn’t have to cry. She could just tune everything out for another hour or two or twenty. 

_‘Or forever. Forever sounds nice.’_

But Emira wasn’t granted even that small measure of peace.

She heard steps approaching and already had a vague idea of what was about to happen.

“Em tells that part better than I do.” Edric put his hand on his twin’s shoulder to get her attention. “Hey Em, we were just getting to the part with the bell, do you maybe wanna-”

His sister let out an annoyed groan and shrugged his hand off.

“No. You tell her. I’m sleepy, and it’s not that funny anyway.”

Edric’s face fell. It felt as if the room had just turned colder by a couple degrees.

Emira absolutely _loved_ telling the watchtower story. It was probably her favorite prank of all time. If he couldn’t even get through to her that way, how else was he supposed to? But he wasn’t ready to give up just yet.

“Didn’t you stay up past three in the morning just last week? It’s barely eight in the evening. If you’re tired already, you’re either growing old way faster than I thought or we should maybe call a healer. I could see if Viney’s free if the latter’s the case?”

The teasing jab in her direction was gentle enough, but Emira was not in the mood for it.

“Hah. Funny.” She pulled the blanket down just barely so she could fix her brother with an exhausted glare. “Leave me alone, Ed. In case you hadn’t realized, I’ve had a really shitty week!”

The words came out harsher, more loudly than she had intended them to. Her brother visibly flinched back, his shoulders slumping and his teasing smile fading.

“You’re right. I’m sorry. That was stupid.”

The numb resignation that filled his voice as he turned away broke her heart.

 _‘Good work!’_ the spiteful voice in her head whispered. _‘It’s not enough to make yourself miserable, you also have to drag your brother down with you!’_ Emira’s greatest skill, it seemed, was thoughtlessness. She couldn’t do anything else right, but it seemed she really excelled at hurting the people she loved! _‘Titan, I’m so stupid...’_

Not only was she unable to support her brother the way he needed her to right now—that would have been awful enough in itself—but she was also dealing with her own shit so poorly that it was hurting Edric on top of everything else.

And there was also that small, idiotic part of her, a part she tried so very hard to ignore, that was _jealous_ of her brother.

It was the part of her that wanted to cry when she looked at his genuine smiles, because when was the last time _she_ had smiled like that?

All Emira knew how to do was stuff her emotions back into her stupid box until they burst out all at once and ate her alive.

Despite how much their mom had tried to convince them that they were identical to the very core, Emira wasn’t Edric. Had never been. Would never be. And for the first time in her life, there was a part of her that felt like that might be a bad thing. 

_‘Maybe I’d be less miserable if I was more like him.’_

She wiped the tears off her cheeks, took a couple deep breaths to steel herself, then slowly sat up, pulling the blanket around her shoulders.

“Edric, I- I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to... I know you just meant well, and...”

_Titan, apologizing was hard._

Her brother turned around to face her again, visibly more tense than he had been earlier, but he flashed her a teasing smile as he raised an eyebrow.

“Are you _apologizing?_ Who are you, and what have you done to my sister?”

His tone wasn’t quite right to sell the joke, and it was obvious that he was still upset, but he was trying, and she appreciated that.

“Me? Apologizing? _Naaah.”_ She patted the couch cushion next to her. “Sit with me for a bit?”

“Sure.” 

And for a while, they did just that, sitting there next to each other in silence. 

Emira tried to think of more to say. She _should_ talk about how she was sorry, and scared, and not dealing with everything very well… but she hadn’t been that open with how she felt in years. She wasn’t even sure she remembered how.

Her brother put an arm around her, but the warmth of the gesture didn’t quite reach her heart.

She opened her mouth time and again, but just couldn’t think of what to say.

“Thank you,” were the only two words that eventually made it out of her mouth. She didn’t clarify, and he didn’t ask, but she hoped he understood anyway. Then she plastered on the same smile she’d been so used to faking for the last couple of years. “Okay, so maybe I’m staying up a little bit longer. Think I can join you, Eda and King for a round or two of... whatever the heck you guys played yesterday before I go to sleep?”

That had to beat moping around on the couch all day, right? It was better than continuing to ruin Edric’s mood, at least. What was another fake smile, after all, as long as it ensured he kept his genuine ones?

The game seemed fun, even with how little Emira had seen of it the day before, and she felt more capable of doing that than she did of actually communicating or telling a story—even one she loved as much as the watchtower story.

Edric’s face lit up.

“Of course! You’ll love this, I promise.” He pulled the box that was on the living room table from the day before close to them, opened it and started explaining the basic rules. If enough people were participating, you usually played in teams of two, so... “Hey King, you wanna play with Em?” Edric asked after a while of explaining. 

The little demon had gotten up from his resting place on the other couch as soon as Edric had opened the box, and was currently preoccupied with violently smashing two of the small plastic game figurines against each other.

“Depends,” King replied, sizing her up skeptically from behind his ‘battle’. “Is she ruthless enough to play to win, no matter the cost?”

Emira cracked her knuckles dramatically, a sinister grin spreading across her face.

“Please. I was thrown out of bughouse club for a reason.”

Edric shuddered.

“Yeah, you should’ve seen her last match. That was brutal.”

King put the figurines down and looked at her, intrigued.

“What did you do?”

“Ed’s totally exaggerating,” Emira said dismissively, but leaned down to tell the little demon what had happened anyways.

King’s little tail wiggled excitedly, and Edric politely bit back a comment about how adorable that looked.

“Wow, you really _are_ evil.” The king of demons stretched his paw out towards Em. “Alright, I’m playing with you.”

She shook it.

“That’s pretty high praise, coming from the king of demons himself,” she replied with a small grin.

Emira couldn’t quite pin down why it was, but she liked King.

Maybe it was him proposing some sacrificial ritual to use their parents for after Eda had quietly told him why the twins were staying at the Owl House on Monday.

Maybe it was simply because she couldn’t quite grasp how this much ruthlessness and bloodlust could fit into such a tiny, adorable-looking creature. It was amazing, like he was simultaneously some ancient, all-powerful being (if you believed him, that was) and a bratty toddler.

Maybe it was the way he had comforted Emira on Monday, when she had been too drained to do anything but lay on the couch and feel sorry for herself. Eda had asked King to keep an eye on Emira while she and Edric were cooking so someone could let them know if Emira needed anything, and after a bit of token complaint, he’d complied. As soon as the others had walked into the kitchen, when he was sure they weren’t looking anymore, he’d climbed on top of her blanket, curling up like a cat.

_‘Listen up, couch-stealer, I don’t like being petted... but Luz once said she finds it calming, so I shall grant you permission if you wish to do so, as long as you swear solemnly never to tell anyone about this and don’t get used to it.’_

Probably, Emira liked King for all of those reasons.

“Do any of you want some snacks?” Eda asked from the kitchen. “I stocked up on roasted spider legs after Luz left.”

Ed elbowed his sister.

“You love these, don’t you?”

Emira couldn’t help but feel like it wasn’t a coincidence _that_ was the snack Eda had mentioned.

“Titan, haven’t had those in years.” Alador and Odalia had forbidden her from having them after _one_ harmless occasion where she’d cast a spell to make them move for fun during dinner. “I’ll take some.”

“Me toooo!” King squealed excitedly. “Luz wouldn’t let us eat them when she was around. She was a little squeamish about that particular dish for some reason.”

“Apparently humans don’t normally eat that?” Eda shrugged after placing the bowl down next to the board game on the table. “Kid doesn’t know what she’s missing.” Eda’s expression turned a little sad for a moment, then she pulled herself together. “You’re joining us today, huh?”

Em shrugged.

“Guess so.”

King punched his little fist into the air.

“Come on, show more fighting spirit!”

“Alright, alright!” Emira chuckled a little, doing her best to force a wider smile. “Let’s crush them.”

The crunch of the large spider leg she’d picked from the bowl underlined the statement nicely.

Half a round and two minor fires later, Emira had to admit that she was feeling at least a little bit better.

Maybe today wouldn’t be completely terrible, after all.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Summary of the events of the last scene:  
> We cut back to the twins.  
> Emira feels extremely drained and wants to sleep early—she still feels extremely guilty over what she did to Amity and feels like she isn’t doing enough to help with the portal, and sleeping helps her get away from that.  
> There’s an offhand mention of the twins not going to school at the moment.  
> Edric is cooking with Eda and looks happy, and Emira feels guilty over Eda being able to help her brother better than she is capable of.  
> Edric tries to get Emira involved in the conversation by telling a story she loves and asking her to finish it, but she doesn’t feel up for it and when he keeps trying and makes a joke in an attempt to cheer her up, she snaps at him.  
> "He apologizes, and Emira immediately feels bad, thinking that if she can't be happy herself, she should at least be happy that he can. She is however unable to shake a feeling of jealousy over Edric's ability to open up to Eda while Emira only knows how to keep herself walled off for her own safety.  
> She apologizes, which Edric deflects with a joke in an attempt to lighten the mood, and the two share a moment of companionship before Emira offers to join him and the others for a board game, less out of any real desire herself than a feeling of responsibility for impacting his mood earlier.  
> Edric explains the game and asks King if he wants to play on Em’s team, who is easily convinced once he hears of her “brutal” past board game endeavors.  
> Emira and King get along surprisingly well. Between the game and her favorite snacks (brought out courtesy of Edric), Emira ends the night feeling at least a little bit better than before.
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, I hope you enjoyed this chapter!  
> Feedback would as always be extremely appreciated, a massive thank you to anyone who commented on the last chapter!  
> Crazily enough, this chapter marks both six months since I started the story and me hitting the 100k words mark! I’m so happy to have so many of you on this journey with you, thank you guys for sticking around and being patient with me.  
> I don’t have a strict schedule for when I’m going to upload the next chapter—I’ve started it, and I’m _hoping_ to have it done three weeks from now, but can’t 100% promise that.  
> I might also do another Locked Out side story in the meantime, we’ll see!  
> For now, I’d love to hear what you thought of this chapter, see you soon!

**Author's Note:**

> Before I forget this again, since that’s apparently a thing now: If you make a fanart of this fic, please please please share the link in the comments so I can see it, I’m beyond speechless that anyone would even think of making fanart for anything I write.
> 
> If you want to, you guys can come check out [my owl house-tumblr](https://the-lone-witch-and-secret-room.tumblr.com/) while waiting for the next chapter, I post a short chapter sneak peek there regularly ;)  
> And I also have [another (short) Owl House fic](https://archiveofourown.org/works/25792798), which is literally just about Luz being dense and jealous after Grom, so you can go check that one out as well if you want to :D
> 
> While you’re waiting for updates, I’m running [an owl house book club on tumblr](https://toh-book-club.tumblr.com/) where I post fanfic recommendations every now and again, if you’re looking for fics to read, you can go check it out!
> 
> Thank you for your patience!
> 
>   
> Other relevant links:
> 
> [Owl House Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/EleenaDume/)
> 
> [Spotify-playlist for the story](https://link.tospotify.com/OnYvKk7Kyab) (Feel free to leave suggestions in the comments of the fic if you know a song that you think might fit!)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [everything about you](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28064139) by [tiredandjaded (CallingVersatile)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/CallingVersatile/pseuds/tiredandjaded)




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